Cyborg as the Only Possible Moral Agent in Digital Age

Abstract

This paper is devoted to the analysis of the concepts of moral responsibility and moral agency in the context of relationships between human and artificial intelligence. An active application of artificial intelligence in contemporary world questions accepted assumptions of moral responsibility for actions. If an autopilot driven car crashes due to a driver’s fault, can an autopilot be considered morally responsible? If the autopilot is not considered to be responsible, then who does: the passenger who was supposed to take control, or the developer who set the algorithm for the autopilot. In other words, who is considered to be a moral agent in such situations? Both options seem problematic therefore the notion of moral responsibility should be reconsidered. Technological progress leads to the situation where only the integrational system which includes both human and artificial intelligence could be morally responsible. The paper contains an analysis of some arguments against such kind of moral agency. As a conclusion paper says that only cyborg-like joint human-AI system could be recognized as moral agent.