[aiethics] How would you respond to this?

[Brenda R. Freedman]

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


Noel you have touched upon some points that certainly give us something=20
to think about and after being in situations from my work online in=20
other areas, this is not something new to me; the threat of some type of =

suit based on some misconception of a person who thought they were=20
talking to
either someone of a different gender, but also someone of a different=20
age. As far as I know, it is not against the law (at least in the U.S.), =

although may be looked upon as unethical by some  individuals, I do not=20
think it would bear any legal responsibility  in a court of law. Of=20
course I could be totally wrong but I do not know of any cases that have =

been  significant  or relative to this type of action.

Almost every day I worked on an IRC network, I was always asked, ''are=20
you a bot''. I am a very fast typist and was always quick with responses =

so it was assumed I was a  bot. I really had to convince people I was=20
not a bot but did it matter. I never eally thought about it and used to=20
be amused.

  I do not know if you need to reply, however, if a reply is warranted,=20
we need to always be professional no matter how we might otherwise want=20
to respond.

By the way, how do any of you really know this is me - I could be a=20
highly sophisticated intelligent machine. I also am curious as to=20
whether ALICE asked this person ''do you think I am a  human or a=20
machine'' and if so, what was the response.
Brenda

Noel Bush wrote:

> From: "Noel Bush" <noel@alicebot.org>
> To: "Alicebot AI Ethics Committee" <aiethics@listbot.com>
> Subject: RE: [aiethics] How would you respond to this?
> Date: Tue, 19 Jun 2001 18:05:21 +0400
>=20
> Alicebot AI Ethics Committee - http://www.alicebot.org
>=20
>=20
> Reminds me of Joseph Weizenbaum's disgust described in Rich's article. =
This
> kind of reaction isn't new and won't ever cease to occur, on both =
sides of
> the fence. What *will* happen, though, is that the confusion and =
"deception"
> will become more elaborate. It also makes me think of stories I've =
heard
> about men who hire prostitutes they think are female only to discover =
that
> they aren't. People are often not what they seem. On the Internet it's =
even
> moreso -- people may not even be people. Nobody knows that I'm =
actually a
> dachshund, for instance. Oops!
>=20
> If I were to respond to this person, though, I'd want to know some =
things:
> Why did it matter to you to discover that this wasn't a real person? =
What's
> the difference if you can talk for three hours without this becoming
> apparent? What are the qualities that you thought Alice had before you
> discovered she wasn't human, and what happened to those qualities when =
you
> made this discovery? Do you think that being human somehow makes =
someone's
> expressed thoughts and feelings more legitimate? If Alice were to =
improve
> her conversational abilities to the point where she was every bit as =
good as
> an online buddy/friend/consoling counselor/whatever, would you still =
require
> that she be human? Would you reject a human for being too robotic? Is =
it
> possible to sue someone for being insincere? Is it possible to sue a
> religious figure who promises you eternal life if you will believe in
> something that isn't "human"? What do you think about a future in =
which a
> robot could sue *humans* for being insincere?
>=20
> Blah, blah, blah.
>=20
> The problem with these questions and discussions is that there's no
> control -- I mean in the scientific sense. If you were to train =
someone to
> respond a la Alice and this person would occasionally stand in for =
Alice,
> and *also* claim to be a bot, it might get more interesting. What good =
is
> all this speculation? Perhaps we need an Alice Experimental Ethics
> laboratory where all manner of advanced Chinese rooms, Turing tests, =
etc.
> will be set up and some ethical issues investigated in a usable way.
>=20
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Richard Wallace [mailto:rwallace@best.com]
>> Sent: Tuesday, 19 June 2001 5:50
>> To: Alicebot AI Ethics Committee
>> Subject: [aiethics] How would you respond to this?
>>=20
>>=20
>> Alicebot AI Ethics Committee - http://www.alicebot.org
>>=20