Could machines help us be more ethical?

[editorial]

Originally published at: Could machines help us be more ethical? - ethical.net

Even as a professional ethicist, I’ll admit it’s not easy to live an ethical life. Heck, it’s a slog at times. Choosing to living well means thinking critically about choices that most people make automatically. Sometimes it means committing to courses of action we don’t enjoy, drawing solace from the knowledge that the greater good…

[Mindseye123]

AI to date has codified human logic and human knowledge but has missed emotional reasoning. I don’t believe emotion is a layer on logic but rather a sub symbolic form of knowledge that alludes representation (to date). Until AI can embody this I don’t think it’s a suitable independent moral reasoner — although it could be nonetheless be helpful as an assistant/tacking tool.

[bjonson974]

Hello… @Mindseye123

I completely agree with your perspective. AI has made strides in mimicking human logic and processing structured knowledge, but emotional reasoning remains elusive because it’s deeply tied to human experience and context. Emotions are complex, often sub-symbolic, and not easily reducible to data or logic layers.
thanks for sharing your thoughts!

[jalac]

@editorial

Even as a professional ethicist, I’ll admit it’s not easy to live an ethical life. Heck, it’s a slog at times. Choosing to living well means thinking critically about choices that most people make automatically. Sometimes it means committing to courses of action we don’t enjoy, drawing solace from the knowledge that the greater good matters more than our own immediate desires. It’s a right and important thing to do, but let’s face it: the ethical journey is sometimes lonely and difficult.

Sometimes it’s the decisions themselves that cause us anguish. How much of our income should we donate to charity? Should we take a lucrative job offer from a company with a chequered ethical history? In unlucky moments we may even face impossible ethical dilemmas in which there’s no perfect answer, just a selection of bad options we must choose from.

As Aristotle taught, it’s not enough to want to do good: what makes a person good is actually doing good things. So we also need to follow through on our decisions. But it can be hard to turn even straightforward moral decisions into action. A lifelong carnivore might find the moral argument for veganism compelling but still be unable to resist a juicy ribeye; a guilty teen may nonetheless struggle to own up to cheating on a test.

An artificial leg-up

Perhaps we could use some help. What if we had a trusted artificial advisor, an impartial ethics AI that could not only walk us through our toughest decisions but also give practical advice on applying those decisions in real life?

The idea isn’t so far-fetched. ask Delphi, a prototype from the nonprofit Allen Institute for AI, already does a surprisingly decent job at suggesting answers to moral questions. Its makers claim a 98% accuracy on certain topics, although we should perhaps be sceptical of claims of such precision when it comes to ethics. The more general large-language models like ChatGPT tend to shy away from contentious moral issues, giving only the vaguest advice, likely on the counsel of their legal teams. But given how lucid and fluent modern LLMs are on other issues, it seems clear they could offer moral advice if only they were allowed to.

But is it actually a good idea to consult AIs for moral guidance?

Hello

It’s an interesting idea, but relying on AI for moral guidance raises serious concerns. Ethics is deeply tied to human values, cultural contexts, and emotions—things AI can’t truly understand. While AI can analyze patterns and provide logical arguments, it lacks personal experience, empathy, and the ability to weigh the nuances of a real-life moral dilemma.

Moreover, AI is only as good as its training data, which may reflect biases and flawed assumptions. If we delegate ethical decisions to machines, we risk outsourcing our moral responsibility and losing the critical thinking that makes us ethical beings in the first place. Instead of replacing human judgment, AI might be better used as a tool to present different perspectives, helping us reflect on our choices rather than making them for us.

That said, if AI could be trained transparently and openly, with diverse ethical frameworks, it might serve as a useful discussion partner—much like debating with a well-read but neutral friend. Thanks for sharing https://community.ethical.net/t/could-machines-help-us-be-more-ethical/1079/-Java Certification guide for reference .

However; at the end of the day, ethical living requires human agency, and no machine can take that responsibility from us.

Thank you!!