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Article 2923 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: silber@orfeo.Eng.Sun.COM (Eric Silber)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Ethics and AI ( AI, software-pit-bulls, OR ...? )
Message-ID: <knmip5INNob2@exodus.Eng.Sun.COM>
Date: 20 Jan 92 22:20:21 GMT
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mt. View, Ca.
Lines: 14
NNTP-Posting-Host: orfeo


 Another philosophical dimension impinging upon the AI debate
 is the question of ethics.  While the debate about the possibility
 of Ai goes on, practitioners of AI-systems-construction are out 
 there building things whose funding is often dominated by
 military sources.  Hence, in academic reports re: AI systems work,
 it has been quite common to see human-computer dialogs in which the
 computer's focus is on recognizing enemy subs and upon advising as
 to which of a number of lethal weapons would be optimal to use in
 dispatching the foe.  If more consideration is not given to ethical
 questions in the construction of Ai systems, then 
 ( regardless of their onto-episto-logical competence or lack 
 thereof ) Ai systems will turn out to be the pit-bulls of
 software technology!


