The following is of relevance and possible interest to 'machine ethics' [if that is not ab initio an oxymoron].  If you have difficulty seeing or downloading my submission to the HoC S&T Committee: Algorithms inquiry from their webpage, please let me know and I can email it to you.  I think this is the direct link to my submission:

http://data.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/committeeevidence.svc/evidencedocument/science-and-technology-committee/algorithms-in-decisionmaking/written/69095.pdf

From: FIANDER, Simon [mailto:[email protected]]

Sent: 26 April 2017 13:12

To: FIANDER, Simon

Cc: STOREY, Julie ; KINSEY, Sean

Subject: S&T Committee: Algorithms inquiry 

Dear all,

This is a quick email to thank you all for submitting written evidence to the Committee’s inquiry on ‘Algorithms in decision-making’. The Committee met this morning and agreed to publish them on our website:

http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/science-and-technology-committee/inquiries/parliament-2015/inquiry9/publications/

The Committee has not been able in the time available to start hearings on the inquiry before the Election (the House of Commons is expected to rise tomorrow). Whether (and how) the newly-formed S&T Committee picks up from where the current inquiry has got to will be something for that new committee to consider. In the meantime, your submissions are now published and in the public domain, so are available for that committee, or indeed anyone else, to use.

Simon Fiander

Clerk, Science & Technology Committee

House of Commons 

From: Dr Stephen P CASTELL [mailto:[email protected]]

Sent: 24 April 2017 16:56

To:

Subject: Algorithms, Algorithms, oh so many funky Algo-rhythms 

The HoC Science and Technology Committee inquiry on Algorithms in decision-making:

https://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/science-and-technology-committee/inquiries/parliament-2015/inquiry9/. 

I think responses had to be in by 21 April – I quickly cobbled together the attached, and submitted it via their site:

http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/science-and-technology-committee/inquiries/parliament-2015/inquiry9/commons-written-submission-form/ 

And also:

https://www.jisc.ac.uk/staff/martin-hamilton

Martin Hamilton  Futurist

07971 989487  [email protected]

I'm Jisc's resident futurist. My job is to keep an eye open for emerging trends and new technologies, and see what we can do across the FE, HE and skills sector to exploit and embrace them - or mitigate against them.  Prior to joining Jisc I set up a supercomputer centre for the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), and have a particular interest in how we can share these kinds of capital intensive facilities between institutions and also with industry. 

From: BCS ELITE Group [mailto:[email protected]]

Sent: 19 April 2017 10:16

To: [email protected]; [email protected]

Subject: Next BCS ELITE event: London: May 23rd

Dear BCS ELITE member.

BCS ELITE is pleased to announce its next event: Robots and AI - the calm before the Singularity?

When: 23rd May 2017, 18:00 - 21:00

Where: BCS, 1st Floor, The Davidson Building,  5 Southampton Street, London, WC2E 7HA

Price: £15 for BCS Members, £20 for non-BCS Members (prices exclude VAT @ 20%)

Details:

Over 3.5 million people in the United States make their living as truck drivers, and there are some 300,000 taxi and private hire licenses in England alone. Will the imminent arrival of AI powered self-driving vehicles mean that we are about to see a Spinning Jenny moment for people who currently drive for a living? If so, what will all those people do next?

And beyond the breathless hype about robotics and AI, robots are already big business. Over 10,000 units of SoftBank's Pepper humanoid robot are already in the field. Robot greeters are increasingly common in Japanese shops and restaurants, and starting to arrive in Europe. Across the world, Amazon has automated its distribution centres, with over 45,000 robots working 24/7 to fulfill customer orders, equivalent to 12% of its workforce.

In this talk Martin will look at the state of the art in robots and AI, and what this tells us about the near term future that our children and grandchildren will live in.

Martin Hamilton's work at Jisc is all about generating and channelling new ideas, and building partnerships to bring them to fruition. I’m particularly interested in the societal implications of ubiquitous robotics and artificial intelligence, and humanity's emergence as a true interplanetary species.

More information and booking: http://www.bcs.org/content/ConWebDoc/5763

I am not familiar with the national laws frame on the ethical basis. I read more on AI and morality on robots. Here are some of the references:

Sullins, J. P. (2006). When is a robot a moral agent? Machine Ethics, 151-160.

Allen, C., Smit, I., & Wallach, W. (2005). Artificial morality: Top-down, bottom-up, and hybrid approaches. Ethics and information technology, 7(3), 149-155.

Allen, C., Varner, G., & Zinser, J. (2000). Prolegomena to any future artificial moral agent. Journal of Experimental & Theoretical Artificial Intelligence, 12(3), 251-261.

Lastly, here is a book that I enjoy reading about morality in a technological world:

Magnani, L. (2007). Morality in a Technological World: Knowledge as Duty. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511498657

You can choose the chapters from this URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/morality-in-a-technological-world/23C575D128738E4412915277D0A0805F

It is always astonishing to discover how much has been written about so little.

Cf. from another discussion on Autonomous Vehicles:  "Academics and the press have referred to this type of mathematical solution to ethical decision-making as the ‘moral algorithm’.”. 

No, it is not a ‘moral algorithm’ at all, and I am rather troubled that such terminology should be used, or have begun to gain any currency or respect in the professional ICT community.  If such a mathematical solution is anything new, it is an ‘expert systems algorithm’ (and actually such algorithms are not new at all – for example, recall the Alvey Programme which first gave UK Government support to IKBS, AI and Expert Systems developments way back in the 1980s).

AI does not have morals.  To discuss Autonomous Vehicle development in terms of humans writing (self-learning) code to program a ‘moral algorithm’ is an absurdity.  That is the whole point of the existential challenge facing humanity with the coming of the Machine Species.  Asimov’s ‘3 Laws’ are already a quaint literary/fictional anachronism (as he himself subsequently acknowledged; and as most AI specialists simply do not see the need for).