[aiethics] Thought experiment: Punishment of robots...

[Noel Bush]

Alicebot AI Ethics Committee - http://www.alicebot.org


>   IMHO, your question *ought to be* considered absolutely absurd. The =
only
> thing that makes it not completely ridiculous is that we humans still
> subscribe, in general, to the idea that punishment (particularly the =
death
> penalty) is a good way to control behavior. The discussion of bot =
criminal
> justice hits at the core of our own criminal justics beliefs.

Most nations in the world *don't* subscribe to this belief. The United
States is a sad exception, along with Russia, Iraq, and a few others.

>   First, you're beginning with the assumption that a bot is a
> self-determined sentient being like we are, which of course it is
> not (yet).
> If Alice killed somebody, Dr. Wallace would face murder charges,
> not Alice.
> But in the future, the degree of human responsibility for bot actions =
is
> bound to change, so let's discuss that:

I won't requote your whole mail, but I believe you are on the right =
track.
Something truly novel for this ethics committee to discuss would be how =
the
notion of punishment might apply to bots. If you believe Foucault that
punishment is more about training a body to fit society than about some =
kind
of higher purpose to mete out "justice", then you have to wonder how, if =
at
all, the concept of punishment could translate to bots. I haven't got a
clue. :-)