Institute for Bioethics & Health Humanities, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX, USA.
Camb Q Healthc Ethics. 2024 Jan;33(1):60-75. doi: 10.1017/S0963180123000488. Epub 2023 Sep 22.
As biological organisms, we age and, eventually, die. However, age's deteriorating effects may not be universal. Some theoretical entities, due to their synthetic composition, could exist independently from aging-artificial general intelligence (AGI). With adequate resource access, an AGI could theoretically be ageless and would be, in some sense, immortal. Yet, this need not be inevitable. Designers could imbue AGIs with artificial mortality via an internal shut-off point. The question, though, is, should they? Should researchers curtail an AGI's potentially endless lifespan by deliberately making it mortal? It is this question that this article explores. First, it considers what type of AGI is under discussion before outlining how such beings could be ageless. Then, after clarifying the type of immortality under discussion and arguing that imbuing an AGI with synthetic aging would be person-affecting, the article explores four core conundrums: (i) deliberately causing a morally significant being's death; (ii) immortality's associated harms; (iii) concerns about immortality's unequal assignment; and (iv) the danger of immortal AGI overlords. The article concludes that while prudence requires we create an aging AGI, in the face of the material harm such an action would constitute, this is an insufficient reason to justify doing so.
作为生物有机体，我们会衰老并最终死亡。然而，年龄的恶化影响可能并非普遍存在。由于其合成成分，一些理论实体可能独立于衰老而存在——即人工通用智能（AGI）。如果有足够的资源，AGI 理论上可以不老，在某种意义上是不朽的。然而，这不一定是必然的。设计师可以通过内部关闭点为 AGI 赋予人工寿命。问题是，他们应该这样做吗？研究人员是否应该通过故意使其死亡来限制 AGI 潜在的无限寿命？本文探讨的正是这个问题。首先，它考虑了正在讨论的是哪种类型的 AGI，然后概述了这种生物如何实现不老。在澄清正在讨论的不朽类型并论证赋予 AGI 合成衰老将影响人类之后，本文探讨了四个核心难题：（i）故意导致具有重大道德意义的生物死亡；（ii）不朽带来的相关危害；（iii）对不朽不平等分配的担忧；以及（iv）不朽的 AGI 霸主的危险。本文得出的结论是，尽管谨慎要求我们创造一个会衰老的 AGI，但面对这一行为会构成的物质伤害，这并不是证明这样做是合理的充分理由。
