Abstract
In this paper we discuss what we believe to be one of the most important features of near-future AIs, namely their capacity to behave in a friendly manner to humans. Our analysis of what it means for an AI to behave in a friendly manner does not presuppose that proper friendships between humans and AI systems could exist. That would require reciprocity, which is beyond the reach of near-future AI systems. Rather, we defend the claim that social AIs should be programmed to behave in a manner that mimics a sufficient number of aspects of proper friendship. We call this “as-if friendship”. The main reason for why we believe that ‘as if friendship’ is an improvement on the current, highly submissive behavior displayed by AIs is the negative effects the latter can have on humans. We defend this view partly on virtue ethical grounds and we argue that the virtue-based approach to AI ethics outlined in this paper, which we call “virtue alignment”, is an improvement on the traditional “value alignment” approach.
Highlights
In December 2019 the second generation of the Crew Interactive Mobile Companion robot, known as CIMON-2, arrived at the International Space Station
We merely claim that social AIs should behave in a manner that mimics a sufficient number of aspects of proper friendship
We present our argument for this claim in the section called “Why treating AIs as slaves is morally wrong” and contrast the notion of friendly utility AIs and friendly social AIs with Asimov’s well-known laws of robot ethics
Summary
In December 2019 the second generation of the Crew Interactive Mobile Companion robot, known as CIMON-2, arrived at the International Space Station. We merely claim that social AIs should behave in a manner that mimics a sufficient number of aspects of proper friendship. The most troubling ethical challenge with designing friendly AIs is that we may end up treating the AIs as mere slaves rather than as-if friends This would be undesirable because, as will be elaborated on this is likely to have a negative impact on the development of the human users’ character virtues. For the sake of clarity, we will articulate and discuss three types of as-if relationships that can hold between AIs and humans, which we believe it is important to keep apart: 1. Slave AIs: These AIs are programmed to behave as-if they were slaves controlled by human masters
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