Patiency Is Not a Virtue: AI and the Design of Ethical Systems

Abstract

The question of whether AI can or should be afforded moral agency or patiency is not one amenable either to discovery or simple reasoning, because we as societies are constantly constructing our artefacts, including our ethical systems. Consequently, the place of AI in society requires normative, not descriptive reasoning. Here I review the basis of social and ethical behaviour, then propose a definition of morality that facilitates the consideration of AI moral subjectivity. I argue that we are unlikely to construct a coherent ethics such that it is ethical to afford AI moral subjectivity. We are therefore obliged not to build AI we are obliged to.

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