Institute of
Futures
Research

Should Artificial Intelligence be used to support clinical ethical decision-making? A systematic review of reasons Abstract“Healthcare providers have to make ethically complex clinical decisions which may be a source of stress. Researchers have recently introduced Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based applications to assist in clinical ethical decision-making. However, the use of such tools is controversial. This review … Continue reading “(Relevant Literature) Philosophy of Futures Studies: July 9th, 2023 – July 15th, 2023”

David Thorstad engages with the philosophy of longtermism and navigates its implications for existential risk mitigation. The grounding concept of longtermism revolves around the potential vastness of the future, considering the numerous lives and experiences that could exist. Within this framework, Thorstad probes the concept of astronomical waste, a central tenet for longtermists, which posits … Continue reading “(Review) Three mistakes in the moral mathematics of existential risk”

In their recent blog post on Daily Nous, Simon Goldstein and Cameron Domenico Kirk-Giannini explore the topic of wellbeing in artificial intelligence (AI) systems, with a specific focus on language agents. Their central thesis hinges on the consideration of whether these artificial entities could possess phenomenally conscious states and thus, have wellbeing. Goldstein and Kirk-Giannini … Continue reading “(Review) A Case fo AI Wellbeing”

The field of philosophy has long grappled with the complexities of intelligence and understanding, seeking to frame these abstract concepts within an evolving world. The exploration of Large Language Models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT, has fuelled this discourse further. Research by Murray Shanahan contributes to these debates by offering a precise critique of the prevalent … Continue reading “(Review) Talking About Large Language Models”

Ljubisa Bojic’s provides a nuanced exploration of the metaverse, an evolving techno-social construct set to redefine the interaction dynamics between technology and society. By unpacking the multifaceted socio-technical implications of the metaverse, Bojic bridges the gap between theoretical speculations and the realities that this phenomenon might engender. Grounding the analysis in the philosophy of futures … Continue reading “(Review) Metaverse through the prism of power and addiction: what will happen when the virtual world becomes more attractive than reality?”

Alan de Oliveira Lyra et al. discuss an integration of computational methods within the sphere of Futures Studies, a discipline traditionally marked by human interpretation and subjective speculation. Central to their contribution is the Named Entity Recognition Model for Automated Prediction (NERMAP), a machine learning tool programmed to extract and categorize future events from scholarly … Continue reading “(Review) Toward computer-supported semi-automated timelines of future events”

Van Beek and Versteeg investigate the convergence of Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs) and climate fiction, a nexus previously underexplored in academic discourse. The authors articulate a vision of how these seemingly disparate domains — scientific modelling and literary narratives — can collaboratively contribute to the depiction of plausible future scenarios. Their exploration engages a comparative … Continue reading “(Featured) Plausibility in models and fiction: What integrated assessment modellers can learn from an interaction with climate fiction”

Research conducted by Pierre Beckmann, Guillaume Köstner, and Inês Hipólito expounds on the cognitive processes inherent in artificial neural networks (ANNs) through the lens of phenomenology. The authors’ novel approach to Computational Phenomenology (CP) veers away from the conventional paradigms of cognitivism and neuro-representationalism, and instead, aligns itself with the phenomenological framework proposed by Edmund … Continue reading “(Featured) An Alternative to Cognitivism: Computational Phenomenology for Deep Learning”

Research by Xiao Ma, Swaroop Mishra, Ahmad Beirami, Alex Beutel, and Jilin Chen’s pivots on an examination of artificial intelligence (AI) language models within the context of moral reasoning tasks. The goal is not merely to comprehend these models’ performance but, more fundamentally, to devise methodologies that may enhance their ethical cognition capabilities. The impetus … Continue reading “(Featured) Let’s Do a Thought Experiment: Using Counterfactuals to Improve Moral Reasoning”

On the prospective hazards of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Dan Hendrycks, Mantas Mazeika, and Thomas Woodside articulate a multi-faceted vision of potential threats. Their research positions AI not as a neutral tool, but as a potentially potent actor, whose unchecked evolution might pose profound threats to the stability and continuity of human societies. The researchers’ conceptual … Continue reading “(Featured) An Overview of Catastrophic AI Risks”

Mark Coeckelbergh’s and David J. Gunkel’s critical analysis compels us to reevaluate our understanding of authorship, language, and the generation of meaning in the realm of Artificial Intelligence. The analysis of ChatGPT extrapolates beyond a mere understanding of the model as an algorithmic tool, but rather as an active participant in the construction of language … Continue reading “(Featured) ChatGPT: deconstructing the debate and moving it forward”

Bibliography

Artificial intelligence (AI) and its interaction with human language present a challenging yet intriguing frontier in both linguistics and philosophy. The ability of AI to process and generate language has seen significant advancement, with tools such as GPT-4 demonstrating an impressive capacity to imitate human-like text generation. However, this research article by Jacob Hesse draws … Continue reading “(Featured) Machines and metaphors: Challenges for the detection, interpretation and production of metaphors by computer programs”

On the ethics of emerging technologies, Marcello Ienca critically examines the role of digital technologies, particularly artificial intelligence, in facilitating manipulation. This research involves a comprehensive analysis of the nature of manipulation, its manifestation in the digital realm, impacts on human agency, and the ethical ramifications thereof. The findings illuminate the nuanced interplay between technology, … Continue reading “(Featured) On Artificial Intelligence and Manipulation”

Using scenario forecasting, Kyle A. Kilian, Christopher J. Ventura, and Mark M.Bailey propose a diverse range of future trajectories for Artificial Intelligence (AI) development. Rooted in futures studies, a multidisciplinary field that seeks to understand the uncertainties and complexities of the future, they methodically delineate a quartet of scenarios — namely, Balancing Act, Accelerating Change, … Continue reading “(Featured) Examining the Differential Risk from High-level Artificial Intelligence and the Question of Control”

Olga Petrovskaya explores a groundbreaking domain: the application of posthumanist philosophy within the nursing field. By proposing an innovative perspective on the relational dynamics between humans and non-humans in healthcare, Petrovskaya illuminates the future possibilities of nursing in an increasingly complex and interconnected world. The research critically unpacks the conventional anthropocentric paradigm predominant in nursing … Continue reading “(Featured) Farewell to humanism? Considerations for nursing philosophy and research in posthuman times”

This project is housed at the Institute of Futures Research and relates to understanding and regularizing challenges to goal and value alignment in artificial intelligent (AI) systems when those systems exhibit nontrivial degrees of behavioral freedom and flexibility, and agency. Of particular concern are resilient failure modes, that is, failure modes that are intractable to … Continue reading “(Work in Progress) Resilient Failure Modes of AI Alignment”

Eric T. Olson investigates the concept of “Parfitian transhumanism” and its metaphysical implications. Named after the British philosopher Derek Parfit, Parfitian transhumanism explores the transformation of human identity and existence, primarily through the lens of “psychological continuity,” in a potential future era of advanced technological interventions in human biology and cognition. The author effectively uses … Continue reading “(Featured) The Metaphysics of Transhumanism”

This project is housed at the Institute of Futures Research and seeks to address some challenges associated with the interpretability, explainability, and comprehensibility of neural networks—often termed ‘black boxes’ due to alleged epistemic opacity. Despite these limitations, I propose that neural network-generated knowledge can be epistemically licensed when they align with the theoretical requirements of … Continue reading “(Work in Progress) Scientific Theory and the Epistemology of Neural Networks”

Veli Virmajoki explores the epistemological and conceptual limitations of futures studies, and offers an enlightening perspective in the philosophical discourse on the conceivability of future possibilities. Utilizing three case studies from the philosophy of science as the crux of its argument, the paper meticulously dissects how these limitations pose significant obstacles in envisaging alternatives to … Continue reading “(Featured) Limits of conceivability in the study of the future. Lessons from philosophy of science”

The advent of rapid technological development has prompted philosophical investigation into the ways in which societal values might adapt or evolve in response to changing circumstances. One such approach is axiological futurism, a discipline that endeavors to anticipate potential shifts in value systems proactively. The research article at hand makes a significant contribution to the … Continue reading “(Featured) Future value change: Identifying realistic possibilities and risks”

As our technological capabilities advance at an accelerating pace, so too does the pertinence of the hypothetical conundrum posed by super-intelligent artificial intelligence (AI) and its implications for human freedom. Robert Sparrow examines these implications, drawing extensively from political philosophy and conceptions of agency, and provides an analysis of the societal implications of super-intelligence from … Continue reading “(Featured) Friendly AI will still be our master. Or, why we should not want to be the pets of super-intelligent computers”

The philosophical discourse on artificial intelligence (AI) often negotiates the boundary of the human-anthropocentric worldview, pivoting around the use of human attributes to describe and assess AI. In this context, the research article by Ophelia Deroy presents a compelling inquiry into our linguistic and cognitive tendency to ascribe human characteristics, particularly “trustworthiness,” to artificial entities. … Continue reading “(Featured) The Ethics of Terminology: Can We Use Human Terms to Describe AI?”

Tzu-Wei Hung and Chun-Ping Yen contribute to the discursive field of predictive policing algorithms (PPAs) and their intersection with structural discrimination. They examine the functioning of PPAs, and lay bare their potential for propagating existing biases in policing practices and thereby question the presumed neutrality of technological interventions in law enforcement. Their investigation underscores the … Continue reading “(Featured) Predictive policing and algorithmic fairness”

The landscape of artificial intelligence (AI) is a complex and rapidly evolving field, one that increasingly intersects with ethical, philosophical, and societal considerations. The role of AI in shaping our future is now largely uncontested, with potential applications spanning an array of sectors from healthcare to education, logistics to creative industries. Of particular interest, however, … Continue reading “(Featured) Cognitive architectures for artificial intelligence ethics”

Pamela Robinson proposes a robust examination of the methodological problems arising due to moral disagreement in the development and decision-making processes of artificial intelligence (AI). The central point of discussion is the formulation of ethical AI systems, in particular, the AI Decider, that needs to make decisions in cases where its decision subjects have moral … Continue reading “(Featured) Moral disagreement and artificial intelligence”

Lena Podoletz investigates the utilization of emotional Artificial Intelligence (AI) within the context of law enforcement and criminal justice systems in a critical examination of the sociopolitical, legal, and ethical ramifications of this technology, contextualizing the analysis within the broader landscape of technological trends and potential future applications. The opening part of the article is … Continue reading “(Featured) We have to talk about emotional AI and crime”

Francesca Minerva and Alberto Giubilini engage with the intricate subject of AI implementation in the mental healthcare sector, particularly focusing on the potential benefits and challenges of its utilization. They open by setting forth the landscape of the rising demand for mental healthcare globally and articulates that the conventional therapist-centric model might not be scalable … Continue reading “(Featured) Is AI the Future of Mental Healthcare?”

Alejo José G. Sison and Dulce M. Redín take a critical look at the concept of autonomous moral agents (AMAs), especially in relation to artificial intelligence (AI), from a neo-Aristotelian ethical standpoint. The authors open with a compelling critique of the arguments in favor of AMAs, asserting that they are neither inevitable nor guaranteed to … Continue reading “(Featured) A neo-aristotelian perspective on the need for artificial moral agents (AMAs)”

Konrad Szocik contests the arguments supporting space colonization and underscores overlooked dimensions of social justice and equity. The primary critique orbits around the arguments of Milan M. Ćirković, who previously dismissed skepticism concerning space colonization, but failed to consider arguments rooted in social justice and equal access. The author points out that the endeavors of … Continue reading “(Featured) Space not for everyone: The problem of social exclusion in the concept of space settlement”

Daniel Trusilo investigates the concept of emergent behavior in complex autonomous systems and its implications in dynamic, open context environments such as conflict scenarios. In a nuanced exploration of the intricacies of autonomous systems, the author employs two hypothetical case studies—an intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) maritime swarm system and a next-generation autonomous humanitarian notification … Continue reading “(Featured) Autonomous AI Systems in Conflict: Emergent Behavior and Its Impact on Predictability and Reliability”

Fabio Morreale et al. examine the nature and implications of unseen digital labor within the realm of artificial intelligence (AI). The article, structured methodically, dissects the issue by studying three distinctive case studies—Google’s reCAPTCHA, Spotify’s recommendation algorithms, and OpenAI’s language model GPT-3, and then extrapolates five characteristics defining “unwitting laborers” in AI systems: unawareness, non-consensual … Continue reading “(Featured) The unwitting labourer: extracting humanness in AI training”

Ana Cristina Bicharra Garcia et al. explore a salient issue in today’s world of ubiquitous artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) applications — the intersection of algorithmic decision-making, fairness, and discrimination in the credit domain. Undertaking a systematic literature review from five data sources, the study meticulously categorizes, analyzes, and synthesizes a wide array … Continue reading “(Featured) Algorithmic discrimination in the credit domain: what do we know about it?”

Manuela Fernández Pinto and Daniel Fernández Pinto offer a compelling examination of the role that funding sources play in shaping scientific consensus, focusing specifically on the influence of private industry. Drawing on the work of Holman and Bruner (2017), the authors use a reinforcement learning model, known as a Q-learning model, to explore industrial selection. … Continue reading “(Featured) Epistemic diversity and industrial selection bias”

Patrick Butlin explores the idea of whether these systems could possess the capacity to “act for reasons”, a concept traditionally associated with conscious and goal-directed agents. Drawing upon philosophical literature and specifically from the work of Hanna Pickard (2015) and Helen Steward (2012), the author outlines two criteria needed to be met for something to … Continue reading “(Featured) Reinforcement learning and artificial agency”

Simon Coghlan and Thomas Quinn present an examination of the current landscape and potential impacts of artificial intelligence (AI) within the field of veterinary medicine. The article opens by exploring the broad applications and implications of AI within human and veterinary medicine, highlighting the distinction between machine learning (ML), a subset of AI, and clinical … Continue reading “(Featured) Ethics of using artificial intelligence (AI) in veterinary medicine”

Sinead O’Connor and Helen Liu investigate a pertinent concern in contemporary artificial intelligence (AI) studies: the manifestation and amplification of gender bias within AI technologies. The authors present a systematic review of multiple case studies which demonstrate the pervasiveness of gender bias across various forms of AI, particularly focusing on textual and visual algorithms. The … Continue reading “(Featured) Gender bias perpetuation and mitigation in AI technologies: challenges and opportunities”

Keith Raymond Harris explores of the role of ‘fake persons’—bots and trolls—in online spaces and their deleterious impact on our acquisition and distribution of knowledge. Situating his analysis in a technological ecosystem increasingly swamped by these artificial entities, the author dissects the intricate issues engendered by these ‘fake persons’ into three discernible yet interwoven threats: … Continue reading “(Featured) Liars and Trolls and Bots Online: The Problem of Fake Persons”

Markus Furendal and Karim Jebari present a nuanced exploration of the implications of artificial intelligence (AI) on the future of work, straddling the philosophical, political, and economic realms. The authors distinguish between two paradigms of AI’s impact on work – ‘human-augmenting’ and ‘human-stunting’. Augmentation refers to scenarios where AI and humans collaboratively work, enhancing the … Continue reading “(Featured) The Future of Work: Augmentation or Stunting?”

At the intersection of theology, philosophy, and futures studies, Andrew Proudfoot examines of the potential for genuine encounter between humans and hypothetically conscious artificial intelligence (CAI) from the perspective of Barthian theology. The author utilizes Karl Barth’s fourfold schema of encounter, which includes address, response, assistance, and gladness, as a framework for this exploration. The … Continue reading “(Featured) Could a Conscious Machine Deliver Pastoral Care?”

John Weckert and Rogelio Bayod present a comprehensive examination of the intersection between ethics, technology, and Indigenous worldviews. The authors argue that the ethics of technology, which largely remains a peripheral concern in technological developments, could significantly benefit from the incorporation of Indigenous perspectives. They contend that the entrenched paradigms of Western thought, with their … Continue reading “(Featured) The Ethics of Technology: How Can Indigenous Thought Contribute?”

José Luis Molina et al. explore the ethical implications of microwork, a novel form of labor facilitated by digital platforms. The authors articulate the nuanced dynamics of this field, focusing primarily on the asymmetrical power relations between microworkers, clients, and platform operators. The piece scrutinizes the transactional nature of microwork, where workers are subject to … Continue reading “(Featured) Research Ethics in the Age of Digital Platforms”

Ines Schröder et al. present an in-depth exploration of the phenomenological and ethical implications of socially assistive robots (SARs), with a specific focus on their role within the medical sector. Central to the discussion is the concept of responsivity, a construct that the authors argue is inherent to human experience and mirrored, to a certain … Continue reading “(Featured) Can robots be trustworthy?”

Giulia De Togni et al. delve into the complex dynamics of technoscientific expectations surrounding the future of artificial intelligence (AI) and robotic technologies in healthcare. By focusing on surgery, pathology, and social care, they examine the strategies employed by scientists, clinicians, and other stakeholders to navigate and construct visions of an AI-driven future in healthcare. … Continue reading “(Featured) Beyond the hype: ‘acceptable futures’ for AI and robotic technologies in healthcare”

Maurizio Balistreri and Steven Umbrello engage in a critical exploration of the philosophical, ethical, and practical implications of human space travel and extraterrestrial colonization. The authors offer an in-depth analysis of two main strategies proposed in the literature: terraforming (geoengineering) and human bioenhancement. The first approach implies transforming extraterrestrial environments, such as Mars, to make … Continue reading “(Featured) Modifying the Environment or Human Nature? What is the Right Choice for Space Travel and Mars Colonisation?”

Alexis Morin-Martel navigates the intricate landscape of judicial decision-making and advances the concept of Judge Assistance Systems (JAS), proposing it as a tool for enhancing the trustworthiness of judges in bail decisions. The argument is grounded in the relational theory of procedural justice, which emphasizes the role of trust, voice, neutrality, and respect in the … Continue reading “(Featured) Machine learning in bail decisions and judges’ trustworthiness”

Atoosa Kasirzadeh and Iason Gabriel embark on an ambitious analysis of how large-scale conversational agents, such as AI language models, can be better designed to align with human values. The premise of the article is grounded in the philosophy of language and pragmatics, employing Gricean maxims and Speech Act Theory to establish the importance of … Continue reading “(Featured) In Conversation with Artificial Intelligence: Aligning language Models with Human Values”

Christoph Durt, Thomas Fuchs, and Tom Froese investigate the astonishing capacities of Large Language Models (LLMs) to mimic human-like responses. They begin by acknowledging the unprecedented feats of these models, particularly GPT-3, which have led some to assert that they possess common-sense reasoning and even sentience. They caution, however, that these claims often overlook the … Continue reading “(Featured) Against AI Understanding and Sentience: Large Language Models, Meaning, and the Patterns of Human Language Use”

Reto Gubelmann articulates a “loosely Wittgensteinian” conception of linguistic understanding, particularly in the context of advanced artificial intelligence (AI) models such as BERT, GPT-3, and ChatGPT. The author posits that these transformer-based natural language processing (NNLP) models are closing in on the capacity to genuinely understand language, a claim that is buttressed by both empirical … Continue reading “(Featured) A Loosely Wittgensteinian Conception of the Linguistic Understanding of Large Language Models like BERT, GPT-3, and ChatGPT”

S. Matthew Liao provides an incisive exploration into the ethical considerations intrinsic to the application of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare contexts. The paper underscores the burgeoning interest in employing AI for health-related purposes, with AI applications demonstrating competencies in diagnosing certain types of cancer, identifying heart rhythm abnormalities, diagnosing various eye diseases, and even … Continue reading “(Featured) Ethics of AI and Health Care: Towards a Substantive Human Rights Framework”

Bartosz Brożek et al. explore the ethical and practical dilemmas arising from the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the realm of law. The authors suggest that despite the perceived opacity and unpredictability of AI, these machines can provide rational and justifiable decisions in legal reasoning. By challenging conventional notions of decision-making and justifiability, the … Continue reading “(Featured) The black box problem revisited. Real and imaginary challenges for automated legal decision making”

Eva Schmidt et al. explore the question of whether evidence provided by software systems can serve as a legitimate basis for judicial decisions, focusing on two primary cases: recidivism predictions and DNA cold hit cases. The authors approach this question by analyzing the nature of bare statistical evidence and its relation to individualized evidence. They … Continue reading “(Featured) Bare statistical evidence and the legitimacy of software-based judicial decisions”

Christian Schmauder et al. critically assess the implications and risks of employing “black box” AI systems for the development and implementation of personalized nudges in various domains of life. They begin by outlining the power and promise of algorithmic nudging, drawing attention to how AI-driven nudges could bring about widespread benefits in areas such as … Continue reading “(Featured) Algorithmic Nudging: The Need for an Interdisciplinary Oversight”

Frank Ursin et al. investigate the ethical considerations associated with medical artificial intelligence (AI), particularly in the context of radiology. They emphasize the importance of implementing explainable AI (XAI) techniques to address epistemic and explanatory concerns that arise when AI is employed in medical decision-making. The authors outline a four-level approach to explicability, comprising disclosure, … Continue reading “(Featured) Levels of explicability for medical artificial intelligence: What do we normatively need and what can we technically reach?”

Yuni Wen and Matthias Holweg conduct a philosophical analysis of the responses of four prominent technology firms to the ethical concerns surrounding the use and development of facial recognition technology. The article meticulously delves into the controversies surrounding Amazon, IBM, Microsoft, and Google, as they grapple with public backlash and stakeholder disapproval. By analyzing these … Continue reading “(Featured) A phenomenological perspective on AI ethical failures: The case of facial recognition technology”

David M. Lyreskog et al. outline and analyze the ethical implications and conceptual challenges surrounding technologically enabled collective minds (TCMs). The paper proposes four main categories to help understand the varying levels of unity and directionality in TCMs: DigiMinds, UniMinds, NetMinds, and MacroMinds. Each category has its own set of unique ethical challenges, which the … Continue reading “(Featured) Merging Minds: The Conceptual and Ethical Impacts of Emerging Technologies for Collective Minds”

Andrea Lavazza and Rodolfo Giorgi argue that the development and use of neurotechnology present new challenges to privacy, mental integrity, and autonomy, necessitating a reevaluation of existing ethical frameworks and the introduction of new rights to protect individuals against potential threats to these fundamental aspects of human dignity. The authors first examine the concept of … Continue reading “(Featured) Philosophical foundation of the right to mental integrity in the age of neurotechnologies”

Giorgia Lorenzini et al. examine the evolving nature of the doctor-patient relationship in the context of integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into healthcare. They focus on the shared decision-making (SDM) process between doctors and patients, a consensual partnership founded on communication and respect for voluntary choices. The authors argue that the introduction of AI can potentially … Continue reading “(Featured) Artificial intelligence and the doctor–patient relationship expanding the paradigm of shared decision making”

Karola V. Kreitmair critically evaluates the notion of empowerment that has become pervasive in the discourse surrounding direct-to-consumer (DTC) mobile health technologies. The author argues that while these technologies claim to empower users by providing knowledge, enabling control, and fostering responsibility, the actual outcome is often not genuine empowerment but merely the perception of empowerment. … Continue reading “(Featured) Mobile health technology and empowerment”

Carolina Villegas-Galaviz and Kirsten Martin analyze the ethical implications of AI decision-making and suggest the ethics of care as a framework for mitigating its negative impacts. They argue that AI exacerbates moral distance by creating proximity and bureaucratic distance, which lead to a lack of consideration for the needs of all stakeholders. The ethics of … Continue reading “(Featured) Moral distance, AI, and the ethics of care”

Richard Volkman and Katleen Gabriels critically examine current approaches to AI moral enhancement and propose a new model that more closely aligns with the reality of moral progress as a socio-technical system. The paper begins by discussing two main approaches to AI moral enhancement: the exhaustive approach, which aims to program AI systems with complete … Continue reading “(Featured) AI Moral Enhancement: Upgrading the Socio-Technical System of Moral Engagement”

Gonzalo Génova, Valentín Moreno, and M. Rosario González explore the possibility and limitations of teaching ethical behavior to artificial intelligence. The paper delves into two main approaches to teaching ethics to machines: explicit ethical programming and learning by imitation. It highlights the difficulties faced by each approach and discusses the implications and potential issues surrounding … Continue reading “(Featured) Machine Ethics: Do Androids Dream of Being Good People?”

Franziska Sonnauer and Andreas Frewer explore the delicate balance between self-determination and external determination in the context of older adults using assistive technologies, particularly those incorporating artificial intelligence (AI). The authors introduce the concept of a “tipping point” to delineate the transition between self-determination and external determination, emphasizing the importance of considering the subjective experiences … Continue reading “(Featured) Trojan technology in the living room?”

Stephen Francis Mann and Daniel Gregory endeavor to explore the possibility of inner speech in artificial intelligence, specifically within an AI assistant. The researchers employ a Turing-like test, which involves a conversation with a chatbot to assess its linguistic competence, creativity, and reasoning. Throughout the experiment, the chatbot is asked a series of questions designed … Continue reading “(Featured) Might text-davinci-003 have inner speech?”

Joshua Habgood-Cooter critically examines the common perception that deepfakes represent a unique and unprecedented threat to our epistemic landscape. They argue that such a viewpoint is misguided and that deepfakes should be understood as a social problem rather than a purely technological one. The author offers three main lines of criticism to counter the narrative … Continue reading “(Featured) Deepfakes and the epistemic apocalypse”

Iñigo de Miguel Beriain et al. delves into the complex relationship between gene editing technologies and the role of women in assisted reproductive techniques (ART). The paper is divided into two main sections, exploring both the potential benefits and drawbacks of gene editing in the context of ART for women. The first section examines the … Continue reading “(Featured) Germline Gene Editing: The Gender Issues”

Robert Sparrow proposes a Socratic approach to uncover the ethical and political dimensions of technology. This method involves asking a series of questions that highlight the ethical concerns and implications of a given technology. The author structures the questions in five categories: (1) technology and power, (2) technology and social justice, (3) technology, values and … Continue reading “(Featured) Technology ethics assessment: Politicising the ‘Socratic approach’”

Maud van Lier presents a methodological framework for understanding artificial agency in the context of basic research, particularly in AI-driven science. The Four-Fold Framework, as the author coins it, is a pluralistic and pragmatic approach that incorporates Gricean modeling, analogical modeling, theoretical modeling, and conceptual modeling. The motivation behind this framework lies in the increasingly … Continue reading “(Featured) Introducing a four-fold way to conceptualize artificial agency”

Luke Munn provides a critical analysis of the current paradigms of artificial intelligence (AI) development and offer a framework for a decolonial AI. The author argues that existing AI paradigms reproduce and reinforce coloniality and its attendant inequalities. To overcome this, he proposes a framework based on Indigenous concepts from Aotearoa (New Zealand), which offers … Continue reading “(Featured) The five tests: designing and evaluating AI according to indigenous Māori principles”

James Johnson explores the ethical and psychological implications of integrating AI into warfare. The author argues that the use of autonomous weapons in warfare may create moral vacuums that eliminate meaningful ethical and moral deliberation in the quest for riskless and rational war. Moreover, the author argues that the human-machine integration process is part of … Continue reading “(Featured) The AI Commander Problem: Ethical, Political, and Psychological Dilemmas of Human-Machine Interactions in AI-enabled Warfare”

Cian Brennan argues for a version of transhumanism that incrementally applies moderate enhancements to future human beings, rather than pursuing radical enhancements in a more immediate and extreme manner. The paper begins by presenting the critique of transhumanism put forward by Johnathan Agar, which centers on the potential negative consequences of radical enhancement. The author … Continue reading “(Featured) Weak transhumanism: moderate enhancement as a non-radical path to radical enhancement”

In the realm of artificial intelligence (AI) deployment, a neglected ethical concern is the impact of AI on meaningful work. Sarah Bankins and Paul Formosa focus on this critical aspect, emphasizing that understanding the consequences of AI on meaningful work for the remaining workforce is as significant as examining the impact of AI-induced unemployment. Meaningful … Continue reading “(Featured) The Ethical Implications of Artificial Intelligence (AI) For Meaningful Work”

Daniel Innerarity explores the limits of algorithmic governance in relation to democratic decision-making. They argue that algorithms function with a 0/1 logic that is the opposite of ambiguity, and they are unable to handle complex problems that are not well-structured or quantifiable. The authors argue that politics consists of making decisions in the absence of … Continue reading “(Featured) The epistemic impossibility of an artificial intelligence take-over of democracy”

Peter Mantello and Manh-Tung Ho examine the impact of emotional artificial intelligence (AI) technologies on employee-employer relationships, focusing on the case of Amazon Japan. The authors argue that the adoption of AI technologies for managing employee emotions can exacerbate pre-existing issues of precarity and worsen the already dire global economic situation. Although emotional AI is … Continue reading “(Featured) Emotional AI and the future of wellbeing in the post-pandemic workplace”

Claudio Novelli, Mariarosaria Taddeo, and Luciano Floridi provide a comprehensive analysis of accountability in the context of artificial intelligence (AI). The paper begins by defining accountability as a relation of answerability that requires recognition of authority, interrogation of power, and limitations on that power. The authors then specify the content of this relation through seven … Continue reading “(Featured) Accountability in artificial intelligence: what it is and how it works”

Pablo García-Barranquero and Marta Bertolaso critically examine the key assumptions of the Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence (SENS) agenda, which seeks to defeat aging by repairing the various cellular and molecular damages that accumulate over time. The authors argue that while SENS has made significant strides in understanding the mechanisms of aging, it fails to … Continue reading “(Featured) The machine-like repair of aging. Disentangling the key assumptions of the SENS agenda”

Michael Tamir and Elay Shech embark on an ambitious journey to explore the notion of understanding in the context of deep learning algorithms. They attempt to ascertain if the impressive achievements of deep learning, particularly in areas where these algorithms can compete with human performance, can be construed as an indication of genuine understanding. To … Continue reading “(Featured) Machine Understanding and Deep Learning Representation”

Sophia Knopf, Nina Frahm, and Sebastian Pfotenhauer provide a thought-provoking exploration of the ethical considerations and implications that emerge within the context of direct-to-consumer (DTC) neurotechnology start-ups. The authors investigate how these companies approach and enact ethical considerations, particularly focusing on boundary-work and the strategic use of ethics to establish credibility, legitimacy, and autonomy in … Continue reading “(Featured) How Neurotech Start-Ups Envision Ethical Futures: Demarcation, Deferral, Delegation”