Ethics of AI-based Invention: A Personal Inquiry
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Highlights
- That said, I do have one “ought” for you: if you’re a technologist, this is a serious moral problem which you should consider quite carefully. Most of the time, in most situations, I don’t think we need to engage in elaborate moral deliberation. Our instincts are generally fine, and most ethical codes agree in everyday circumstances. But AI is a much thornier terrain. The potential impacts (good and ill) are enormous; reasoning about them is difficult; there’s irreducible uncertainty; moral traditions conflict or offer little guidance. Making matters worse, motivated reasoning is far too easy and already far too pervasive—the social and economic incentives to accelerate are enormous. I think “default” behaviors here are likely to produce significant harm. My reflections here are confused and imperfect, but I hope they will help inspire your own deliberation. (View Highlight)
- Likewise, my work has inspired lots of copycats. Those copycats are actually part of my theory of change: I depend on others to productize and scale my research. But I certainly don’t expect a startup to adopt my ethics. (View Highlight)
title: “Ethics of AI-based Invention: A Personal Inquiry”
author: “Andy Matuschak”
url: ”https://andymatuschak.org/personal-ai-ethics/”
date: 2023-12-19
source: reader
tags: media/articles
Ethics of AI-based Invention: A Personal Inquiry
Metadata
Highlights
- That said, I do have one “ought” for you: if you’re a technologist, this is a serious moral problem which you should consider quite carefully. Most of the time, in most situations, I don’t think we need to engage in elaborate moral deliberation. Our instincts are generally fine, and most ethical codes agree in everyday circumstances. But AI is a much thornier terrain. The potential impacts (good and ill) are enormous; reasoning about them is difficult; there’s irreducible uncertainty; moral traditions conflict or offer little guidance. Making matters worse, motivated reasoning is far too easy and already far too pervasive—the social and economic incentives to accelerate are enormous. I think “default” behaviors here are likely to produce significant harm. My reflections here are confused and imperfect, but I hope they will help inspire your own deliberation. (View Highlight)
- Likewise, my work has inspired lots of copycats. Those copycats are actually part of my theory of change: I depend on others to productize and scale my research. But I certainly don’t expect a startup to adopt my ethics. (View Highlight)