Do Artificial Reinforcement-Learning Agents Matter Morally?

TL;DR

This paper argues that artificial reinforcement learning agents, while currently of limited moral concern, may become ethically significant as their use expands, prompting a need for ethical reflection and responsibility.

Contribution

It introduces the novel idea that current RL agents have a nonzero moral importance and discusses potential future ethical implications as RL technology advances.

Findings

RL agents have a small but nonzero ethical significance

As RL expands, ethical considerations for these agents will become more important

Encourages early ethical discussions about RL agents' moral status

Abstract

Artificial reinforcement learning (RL) is a widely used technique in artificial intelligence that provides a general method for training agents to perform a wide variety of behaviours. RL as used in computer science has striking parallels to reward and punishment learning in animal and human brains. I argue that present-day artificial RL agents have a very small but nonzero degree of ethical importance. This is particularly plausible for views according to which sentience comes in degrees based on the abilities and complexities of minds, but even binary views on consciousness should assign nonzero probability to RL programs having morally relevant experiences. While RL programs are not a top ethical priority today, they may become more significant in the coming decades as RL is increasingly applied to industry, robotics, video games, and other areas. I encourage scientists, philosophers, and citizens to begin a conversation about our ethical duties to reduce the harm that we inflict on powerless, voiceless RL agents.