Every day we learn more about how AI and other new data-driven technologies are transforming virtually every sociotechnical system, from finance and transportation to healthcare and warfare. Yet we hear very little about the growing impact of AI and other emerging technologies on human character – the intellectual and moral virtues that enable persons and communities to flourish. The art of cultivating these virtues through various moral and political practices is as old as human history, and is one of the few truly unique capacities of our species. Today this humane art has largely receded from the modern mind, with increasingly devastating consequences on local and planetary scales. Reclaiming it may be essential to averting catastrophe for our species, and many others. How are new technologies--from social media and robotics to predictive algorithms for automated decision making--impacting this endangered art? What uses of AI in particular risk undermining the development of our moral and intellectual character, or shaping our character without our knowledge or control? What uses of AI could amplify and sustain our own moral intelligence? Which is a better goal for ethical AI: machines that are humane toward us? Or machines that enable us to become more humane ourselves?
Mandatory reading
Vallor, S. (2015). Moral Deskilling and Upskilling in a New Machine Age: Reflections on the Ambiguous Future of Character Philosophy & Technology 28(1), 107-124. https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13347-014-0156
Optional reading
Vallor, S. (2017). Philosophy and Computing, Essays in Epistemology, Philosophy of Mind, Logic, and Ethics. https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61043-6_8