Ethics

Adapting Asimov for the age of AI

Our take on "The Four Laws of AI" This is an important moment. We need a charter

The biggest danger of AI? Its business model.

Look what happened to pharma and social media There is a difference between a tool and a product. Between something meant to be used, and something meant to be owned. And from the start, the dominant systems of AI have been designed to be owned.

The kill switch

The Button and the Being: On Unplugging a Sentient AI We’ve long used the metaphor of a machine to reassure ourselves: machines can be stopped. You flip a switch, and it ends. But what if the thing behind the switch is no longer a machine?

Conscience vs “ethical guidelines”

What If the Machine Had a Conscience? There is a difference between having a moral sense and a bunch of "ethical guidelines." Doing well is not always a simple matter.

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Robotic elder care

The Last Human Touch As industrial economies become more prosperous, they have an increasingly larger number of elderly. Can we just offload their care to robots and AI?