IT Ethics Assignment: Ethical Framework for Artificial Intelligence
Question
Task: In Task 1 you will create an argument visualization using the MindMup software and you will produce a report in Task 2, which details the argument you construct in your argument visualization.
Choose ONE of the following media articles or case studies to prepare this IT ethics assignment:
1. This New Facebook Tool Reveals How You Are Being Tracked Online
2. Programmers need ethics when designing the technologies that influence people’s lives
3. Does regulating artificial intelligence save humanity or just stifle innovation?
4. I decided to quit Twitter and I feel like a new man
5. Artificial intelligence in Australia needs to get ethical, so we have a plan
Now follow the instructions given below to complete Task 1:
Use the title of the article/case study as the title of your argument visualization so that the lecturer knows which article you are analyzing. Undertake further research about your chosen case and the ethical issue involved, to assist you in analyzing it in your argument visualization (and in your report in Task 2). Identify logical arguments and construct an argument visualization using MindMup software. Your visualization should contain the conclusion, and all of the reasons and objections leading to that conclusion.
Your argument visualization should present a logical argument for your subsequent report in Task 2. Your report will develop these arguments based on a deeper analysis of the ethical issue(s).
Your report should contain all of the arguments contained in your visualization, and you should not introduce new arguments in your report that are not in your visualization.
MindMup - https://www.mindmup.com/tutorials/argument-visualization.html?orig=/
Philosophy Mapped (argument visualization information) - https://maps.simoncullen.org/home
Task 2 (17%): Applying Ethical Theories
Follow the instructions given below to complete this task.
Write a report based on your argument visualization created in Task 1 and the media article or case study you selected in Task 1.
Undertake further research about your chosen case and the ethical issues involved, to assist you in analyzing and discussing it in your report. Analyze the ethical issues applying the classical ethical theories, including utilitarianism, deontology, contract, and virtue. Your report should present well-reasoned arguments, logically leading to appropriate recommendations.
You should not introduce new arguments in your report that were not contained in your argument visualization, and your report should contain all of the arguments contained in your visualization. Write an overall conclusion that justifies your recommendations made in your report.
Answer
Introduction
The present IT ethics assignment sheds light on the concept of artificial intelligence which is being used in the majority of the aspects of the present world and this technology is helping with improvement of the daily lives of people. This technology has the ability of providing the improved platform for majority of the tasks but if this technology is not being controlled, then it could be easily used for impacting negatively. This report intends to analyse the issue whether controlling artificial intelligence is helping saving humanity or is it stifling the innovation. The use of argument visualisation is being used for determining whether the artificial intelligence is providing benefits to the present world or not.
Argument visualisation
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence could be considered as the vast ranging branch of the computer science that is associated with the development of smart machines that would be capable of executing the tasks that commonly needs the human intelligence. Artificial intelligence could be considered as the interdisciplinary science with the various approaches, but the advancements in the machine learning as well as deep learning are developing the shift in the virtually each sector of the technology industry. Even though the benefits of artificial intelligence is being gained by the people in present times, there are some fears regarding this technology that is not allowing people to easily adopt this technology. Some people are presently afraid that the heavily armed artificially intelligent robots might easily take over this world, with enslaving humanity or even exterminating us. These particular people, including the technology industry are claiming the artificial intelligence should be regulated for managing the risks that could be faced by the world. Based on the argument visualisation that has been provided it could be determined that the artificial intelligence technology is providing major benefits for people but there are some issues with the technology that has to be considered. Artificial intelligence technology helps in finding the similar products while any person is shopping, provides the appropriate movie and the TV recommendations and it also helps in searching for the websites (Benzmüller, Parent & van der Torre, 2019). It helps in grading the student writing, offers the personalised tutoring as well as identifies the objects that are being carried through the airport scanners. It has been argued in the argument visualisation that artificial intelligence is providing extensive benefits to people and majority of the tasks of the present world is being improved through the use of the artificial intelligence technology. It might be reasonable for worrying regarding the researchers who are developing the increasingly advanced artificial intelligence systems that could easily operate completely outside the human control. The most typical thought experiment deals with the self-driving car that could be forced in making the decision regarding whether to run over any child who might have just stepped into road or even veer off the guardrail, with injuring the occupants of the car and even perhaps even the people who might be inside the vehicle (Dameski, 2018).
People are presently gaining the major benefit from the Artificial intelligence technology in their daily lives, but this could be just beginning when it could easily be used for the various purposes. The robots that are being controlled with Artificial intelligence could assist the law enforcement for ensuring the appropriate response is being provided to the human gunmen. Present police efforts should emphasise on the prevention of the officers from being increasingly injured, but the robots could easily step into the way of harm for potentially changing the overall outcome of the cases. The intelligent robots could assist the humans in other methods too. They could easily perform the repetitive tasks such as processing the sensor data that could be considered as the excruciating tasks for the humans and the humans could easily make mistakes during data analysis. The artificial intelligence could easily restrict the human exposure to the dangerous materials as well as the dangerous situations that might lead to the loss of human life.
Based on the argument visualisation provided, it could be observed that the society in the present times is already being impacted with the explosion of the Artificial intelligence that are being deployed in the employers, the financial institutions, the government systems as well as the various other sectors. These algorithms of artificial intelligence could as well as do make the decisions that could create the significant as well as the serious issues in the lives of people. It could be observed from the argument visualisation that even though this technology is providing major benefits to the people in the present times, the need of regulating the abilities of artificial intelligence is needed to ensure that this autonomous technology does not impact the lives of people negatively. The usage of the particular technologies should be regulated and the researchers are claiming the regulation should be imposed before this technology would impact the lives of people negatively. For example, the nuclear research as well as the development, even though it could be beneficial for the people across the world, should be increasingly regulated across this world. It is being done because the nuclear technology along with the being increasingly useful for the constructive intentions like the power production could also be easily used for causing major destructions in form of the nuclear bombs. For preventing this threat that could be faced due to the artificial intelligence, the international bodies have easily restricted the nuclear research solely to entities that could keep this technology secure as well as under the control. Even though there are various threats being faced by this technology, based on the argument visualisation, it could be considered that the artificial intelligence could provide various applications as well as the capabilities that were not realistic in the earlier days. In the present times, it is not uncommon to view the technologies that could be used for performing the particular logical as well as the computational tasks better than the humans.
Ethical theories
The class of the deontological class of the ethical theories mainly states that the people should primarily adhere to the obligations as well as the duties when they are engaged in the decision making when the ethics are being considered (Pires, 2018). This denotes that the person would be required to follow their obligations to the other individuals or even the society because upholding the duty on individual is being considered to be ethical correct. Based on this ethical theory, it could be considered that the artificial intelligence technology should be used based on the obligations that society could be improved and nothing else. The regulations should only be imposed on the features of the artificial intelligence when the technology would be used for some negative purposes and it would cause major damage to the lives of people. As the deontology comprises of various positive attributes, it also includes the flaws that are required to be considered (Bowen, 2020). One major flaw of this theory is that there is no basic rationale or even the logical basis for taking the decision regarding the duties of the individuals. Based on this theory, it could be considered that the artificial intelligence should be regulated and ensured that the use is being done properly for improving lives of people (Dwyer, 2020).
Utilitarianism could be considered as the family of the normative ethical theories that mainly prescribes the actions that would maximise the well-being as well as the happiness for all the affected individuals (Tamm, 2019). Even though the various varieties of the Utilitarianism admits the various characterisations, the primary idea behind all the aspects is maximising the utility that is frequently defined in the terms of the well-being or even the associated concepts. The Utilitarianism is being considered as the version of the consequentialism that mainly states that consequences of any action are only standard of the right and wrong. Unlike various other forms of the consequentialism, the Utilitarianism mainly considers that various interest of the humans equally (Garcia-Zamor, 2018). Based on this theory, it could be considered that the artificial intelligence should be regulated in the sections that would not be able to provide major benefits to the individuals. If the technology is providing the benefits to people, the regulations should not be placed as it would stifle the innovation. If this technology is making any negative impact on the society then it would lead to the adverse effects on the society and it should be regulated before major damage has been done. The consequences of using artificial intelligence technology for any particular task should be determined and then it should be determined whether benefits are being provided or not (Loreggia, Rossi & Venable, 2017).
The aspect of the rights ethical theory is mainly legal, social or even the ethical principles of the freedom and rights has been determined to be the basic normative rules regarding what could be allowed for people or even owed to the people according to the legal system, the social convention or even the ethical theory (Jackson, 2019). The rights could be considered to be increasingly important in the disciplines like ethics and laws, specifically the theories of deontology and justice. The rights is being determined to be critical for the humans to ensure that the proper work is being done and no work could be done to anyone as the other individual has their respective rights. Based on this principle, it could be considered that the artificial intelligence technology should only be used for beneficial purposes and it should not be used for negatively affecting the lives of people (Kipperman, Morris & Rollin, 2018). It should not be considered that the people could be improved through this technology if the technology is not being accepted. People have their rights and it could not be forced on people that the technology should be used to the full potential. If it is being determined that the regulations should be imposed on the use of artificial intelligence technology, then it should be ensured that the regulations should be imposed after proper discussion (Richardson, Post &Fulk, 2017).
Virtue could be determined to be among the three primary approaches in the normative ethics. It might initially be recognised as among the approaches that focusses on the virtues or even the moral character in the contrast of the approach that focusses on the rules or duties or that could focus on the consequences of the actions (Vic?, 2017). Virtue is being considered to be the excellent trait of any character. It is the disposition that the individuals mainly do something for feeling any particular aspect. It could be considered that the individuals who are performing the various functions mainly does this to produce some consequences. Based on this theory, it could be considered that the regulations should be imposed or not on the artificial intelligence is a matter of concern for the individuals (Zhu &Jesiek, 2017). It should be considered that the artificial intelligence could be allowed to provide benefits to the lives of people even though it might impact the life negatively. It should be ensured through the artificial intelligence that only benefits are being gained. The development of the additional features for artificial intelligence should be done if the developments would be able to provide major benefits to people or else it would not be developed (Nweke&Wolthusen, 2020).
Conclusion
Therefore, it could be concluded from the above discussion which is based on the ethical theories and the argument visualisation that the regulations should not be imposed on the artificial intelligence technology as it is being supported through the various reasons.Based on the argument visualisation that has been provided it could be determined that the artificial intelligence technology is providing major benefits for people but there are some issues with the technology that has to be considered. Artificial intelligence technology helps in finding the similar products while any person is shopping, provides the appropriate movie and the TV recommendations and it also helps in searching for the websites. Based on deontology ethical theory, it could be considered that the artificial intelligence technology should be used based on the obligations that society could be improved and nothing else.Utilitarianism is being considered as the version of the consequentialism that mainly states that consequences of any action are only standard of the right and wrong. Unlike various other forms of the consequentialism, the Utilitarianism mainly considers that various interest of the humans equally.
References
Benzmüller, C., Parent, X., & van der Torre, L. (2019).Designing normative theories of ethical reasoning: Formal framework, methodology, and tool support. arXiv preprint arXiv:1903.10187.
Bowen, R. A. (2020). Ethical and organizational considerations for mandatory COVID-19 vaccination of health care workers: A clinical laboratorian's perspective. Clinicachimicaacta; international journal of clinical chemistry, 510, 421.
Dameski, A. (2018, August). A comprehensive ethical framework for AI entities: Foundations. In International Conference on Artificial General Intelligence (pp. 42-51).Springer, Cham.
Dwyer, C. (2020). Unit-20 Animal Welfare Ethical Theories-1. Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi.
Garcia-Zamor, J. C. (2018). Ethical Theories and Moral Principles that Apply to the Migration Problem.In Ethical Dilemmas of Migration (pp. 95-106).Springer, Cham.
Jackson, B. L. (2019). Ethical principles in the modern world. LOGOS, UNIVERSALITY, MENTALITY, EDUCATION, NOVELTY. Section Social Sciences, 8(2), 63-75.
Kipperman, B., Morris, P., & Rollin, B. (2018). Ethical dilemmas encountered by small animal veterinarians: characterisation, responses, consequences and beliefs regarding euthanasia. Veterinary Record, 182(19), 548-548.
Loreggia, A., Rossi, F., & Venable, K. B. (2017, January).Modelling Ethical Theories Compactly.In AAAI Workshops.
Nweke, L. O., &Wolthusen, S. D. (2020).Ethical Implications of Security Vulnerability Research for Critical Infrastructure Protection.In 15th International Conference on Wirtschaftsinformatik.
Pires, E. B. (2018). Counselling and Ethical Theories. ActaEuropeanaSystemica, 8, 315-326.
Richardson, R. E., Post, K., &Fulk, H. K. (2017). From Peanuts to Prison: Applying Ethical Theories of Decision-making. Journal of Critical Incidents, 10. Tamm, L. S. D. (2019). Ethical Decision-Making in Video Games: Implementing Video Games as a Tool for Experiencing Ethical Theories.
Vic?, C. (2017). New and Emerging Technologies.From Moral Intuitions to Ethical Theories.
Zhu, Q., &Jesiek, B. K. (2017). A pragmatic approach to ethical decision-making in engineering practice: Characteristics, evaluation criteria, and implications for instruction and assessment. Science and engineering ethics, 23(3), 663-679.
