Salles Arleen, Evers Kathinka, Farisco Michele
Uppsala University.
Centro de Investigaciones Filosoficas (CIF).
AJOB Neurosci. 2020 Apr-Jun;11(2):88-95. doi: 10.1080/21507740.2020.1740350.
AI research is growing rapidly raising various ethical issues related to safety, risks, and other effects widely discussed in the literature. We believe that in order to adequately address those issues and engage in a productive normative discussion it is necessary to examine key concepts and categories. One such category is anthropomorphism. It is a well-known fact that AI's functionalities and innovations are often anthropomorphized (i.e., described and conceived as characterized by human traits). The general public's anthropomorphic attitudes and some of their ethical consequences (particularly in the context of social robots and their interaction with humans) have been widely discussed in the literature. However, how anthropomorphism permeates AI research itself (i.e., in the very language of computer scientists, designers, and programmers), and what the epistemological and ethical consequences of this might be have received less attention. In this paper we explore this issue. We first set the methodological/theoretical stage, making a distinction between a normative and a conceptual approach to the issues. Next, after a brief analysis of anthropomorphism and its manifestations in the public, we explore its presence within AI research with a particular focus on brain-inspired AI. Finally, on the basis of our analysis, we identify some potential epistemological and ethical consequences of the use of anthropomorphic language and discourse within the AI research community, thus reinforcing the need of complementing the practical with a conceptual analysis.
人工智能研究正在迅速发展，引发了各种与安全、风险及其他影响相关的伦理问题，这些问题在文献中得到了广泛讨论。我们认为，为了充分解决这些问题并开展富有成效的规范性讨论，有必要审视关键概念和类别。拟人化就是这样一个类别。人工智能的功能和创新常常被拟人化（即被描述和设想为具有人类特征），这是一个众所周知的事实。文献中已广泛讨论了公众的拟人化态度及其一些伦理后果（特别是在社交机器人及其与人类互动的背景下）。然而，拟人化如何渗透到人工智能研究本身（即在计算机科学家、设计师和程序员的语言中），以及这可能产生的认识论和伦理后果却较少受到关注。在本文中，我们将探讨这个问题。我们首先搭建方法/理论框架，区分对这些问题的规范性方法和概念性方法。接下来，在简要分析拟人化及其在公众中的表现之后，我们将探讨其在人工智能研究中的存在情况，特别关注受大脑启发的人工智能。最后，基于我们的分析，我们确定了人工智能研究社区中使用拟人化语言和话语的一些潜在认识论和伦理后果，从而强化了用概念分析补充实践的必要性。
