![]() And of course, to the work of anthropologists, psychologists, sociologists, historians, and others who have contributed important ideas about the roles of ethics in human society. This has led many of us to look for ideas in the fields of Ethics, both philosophical and applied. Like many researchers in Artificial Intelligence (AI), I am concerned about the impact of the increasing success of our field on the welfare of humanity. Loss of trust will affect humanity’s ability to respond to existential threats such as climate change. Cooperation is reduced, resources are constrained, and there is less ability to meet challenges or take advantage of opportunities. Widespread use of such models can erode the overall levels of trust in the society. However, a poorly-formulated game theory model may be uniquely harmful, in cases where the action it recommends deliberately exploits the vulnerability and violates the trust of cooperative partners. ![]() By selecting actions to maximize a utility measure, a well-formulated game theory model can be a powerful and valuable tool. This possibility arises because decision-making agents (humans, AIs, and others) necessarily rely on simplified models to cope with the unbounded complexity of our physical and social world. In the second half of the essay, I consider whether the key role of trust exposes our society to existential threats. The causal paths involved suggest that trust and cooperation play key roles in this process. In the first half of this essay, I argue that ethics is an evolved body of cultural knowledge that (among other things) encourages individual behavior that promotes the welfare of the society (which in turn promotes the welfare of its individual members). We AI researchers are concerned about the potential impact of artificially intelligent systems on humanity. Computer Science and Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, United States.
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