Automation and Morals - Eliciting Folk Intuitions: an Experiment

The introduction of ever more capable autonomous systems is moving at a high pace. The technological progress will enable us to completely delegate processes to machines that were once a prerogative for humans. Progress in fields like autonomous driving promises huge benefits on both economical and ethical scales. Yet, there is little research that investigates the utilization of machines to perform tasks that are in the moral domain. This study explores whether subjects are willing to delegate other-regarding tasks to machines as well as how this decision is evaluated by an impartial observer. We examined two possible factors that might coin attitudes regarding machine use - perceived utility of and trust in the automated device. We found that people are hesitant to delegate to a machine and that observers judge respective delegations relatively critical. Neither perceived utility nor trust, however, can account for this pattern. We thus identify an aversion per se against machine use in the moral domain.     «

The introduction of ever more capable autonomous systems is moving at a high pace. The technological progress will enable us to completely delegate processes to machines that were once a prerogative for humans. Progress in fields like autonomous driving promises huge benefits on both economical and ethical scales. Yet, there is little research that investigates the utilization of machines to perform tasks that are in the moral domain. This study explores whether subjects are willing to delegate...     »