EAGER: A General Ethical Dilemma Analyzer

能够在环境中产生变化的系统需要特别注意其行为的伦理后果。到目前为止，这种系统的伦理问题的确定和缓解一直是由它们的设计者承担的，主要是通过简单地防止系统以预定的、特别的方式从事在伦理上不可接受的行为来实现的，这可能不必要地约束一组可能的行为。尽管这在过去可能被认为是“最佳实践”，但将计算智能与这类系统相结合可能会提供更好的选择。对于自主系统来说尤其如此，它不仅会引起环境的变化，而且能够监测这种环境，以确定其行动的影响以及下一步行动应该是什么。关于这种复杂而动态的系统行为的伦理问题很可能超出了它们的设计者的理解，并回避了简单的静态解决方案。因此，自主系统将需要工具和方法来帮助编纂与其行为相关的伦理原则，这些原则构成自主选择和证明伦理优先行动的基础。在这项研究中，PI和他的团队将开发和实施一种发现伦理原则的一般方法，该方法从他们之前的工作中抽象出来，逐步构建表征伦理困境的表征，并发现解决这些问题所需的决策原则。他们将使用这一系统来编纂对自治系统与人类互动特别重要的领域中的伦理决策的表述方案和原则。他们将通过独立协商对发现的陈述和原则进行评估。PI预计项目成果将提供证据，证明伦理原则和决策可以在机器可能与人类交互的领域中进行计算和有效运行。广泛影响：这项研究将为为跨多个领域的自治系统提供选择最符合伦理道德的行为和证明这些选择的合理性所需的原则奠定基础。因此，这项工作应该缓解人们对自治系统的担忧，并加强社会对其在广泛领域的发展的支持。这项研究的一个重要副产品是，随着解决伦理困境的表现和原则的发现，伦理理论可能会取得突破。

Systems that are capable of producing change in the environment require particular attention to the ethical ramifications of their behavior. The determination and mitigation of the ethical concerns of such systems has to date been charged to their designers and has largely been accomplished by simply preventing systems from engaging in ethically unacceptable behavior in a predetermined, ad hoc manner, which can unnecessarily constrain the set of possible behaviors. Although this may have been considered "best practice" in the past, the coupling of computational intelligence to such systems is likely to provide better options. This is especially true of autonomous systems, which not only produce change in the environment but are capable of monitoring this environment to determine the effect of their actions as well as what the next action should be. Ethical questions concerning the behavior of such complex and dynamic systems are likely to exceed the grasp of their designers and elude simple static solutions. Autonomous systems will therefore need tools and methodologies to help codify ethical principles pertinent to their behavior, principles which form the basis for the autonomous selection and justification of ethically preferable actions.In this research, the PI and his team will develop and implement a general methodology for the discovery of ethical principles, abstracted from their previous work, which incrementally constructs representations that characterize ethical dilemmas and discovers decision principles necessary to resolve them. They will use this system to codify representation schemes and principles of ethical decision-making in domains that are of particular significance to autonomous systems in their interaction with human beings. And they will evaluate the discovered representations and principles through independent consultation. The PI expects project outcomes will provide evidence that ethical principles and decision-making can be computed and function effectively in domains where machines are likely to interact with human beings.Broader Impacts: This research will lay the foundations for providing autonomous systems across multiple domains with the principles required to choose the most ethically correct actions and justify these choices. Thus, the work should alleviate concerns with autonomous systems and bolster society's support for their development in a wide range of domains. An important by-product of the research is that breakthroughs in ethical theory are likely to result as representations and principles for resolving ethical dilemmas are discovered.