Untangling AI Ethics: Working Toward a Root Issue

Given myriad issues in AI ethics as well as many competing frameworks/declarations, it may be useful to step back to see if we can find a root or common issue, which may help to suggest a broad solution to the complex problem. This involves returning to first principles: what is the nature of AI? I will suggest that AI is the power of increasing omniscience, which is not only generally disruptive to society but also a threat to our autonomy. A broad solution, then, is to aim at restoring that autonomy.

Speaker bio: Patrick Lin is the director of the Ethics + Emerging Sciences Group, based at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, where he is also a philosophy professor. He has published several books and papers in the field of technology ethics, especially with respect to robotics—including Robot Ethics (MIT Press, 2012) and Robot Ethics 2.0 (Oxford University Press, 2017)—human enhancement, cyberwarfare, space exploration, nanotechnology, and other areas.