Using the classic trolley problem to teach AI students and researchers about their role as moral agents, and why they should be subject to moral scrutiny

Abstract

AbstractThis commentary proposes a means of teaching students – particularly computer science students – about their role as moral agents, who, on account of this role, are necessarily subject to moral scrutiny. It utilizes the classic Trolley Problem; but instead of focusing on the morality of the decision the bystander makes, it focuses, initially, on the role of the bystander as an agent of action, capable of effecting change and then, more importantly, as a moral agent whose action capabilities are subject to moral scrutiny. I believe that using the Trolley Problem in this way provides those tasked with teaching ethics to computer science students (but also others) a practical means of drawing attention not simply to whatever guidelines (e.g., code of ethics) have been produced in relation to AI and IT research, but to the fact that students and researchers alike are moral agents, however reluctant they may be to embrace this fact in the context of their studies and/or research.