# Stoic Ethics for Artificial Agents

## TL;DR

This paper advocates for integrating Stoic philosophy into ethical AI development, emphasizing internal states and virtues over external actions, contrasting with traditional utilitarian or deontological approaches.

## Contribution

It introduces a novel ethical framework for AI based on Stoic principles, focusing on internal virtues and states rather than external behaviors.

## Key findings

- Aligns Stoic ethics with AI development concepts
- Highlights internal virtues over external actions in AI ethics
- Provides examples for near-term and hypothetical superintelligent AI

## Abstract

We present a position paper advocating the notion that Stoic philosophy and ethics can inform the development of ethical A.I. systems. This is in sharp contrast to most work on building ethical A.I., which has focused on Utilitarian or Deontological ethical theories. We relate ethical A.I. to several core Stoic notions, including the dichotomy of control, the four cardinal virtues, the ideal Sage, Stoic practices, and Stoic perspectives on emotion or affect. More generally, we put forward an ethical view of A.I. that focuses more on internal states of the artificial agent rather than on external actions of the agent. We provide examples relating to near-term A.I. systems as well as hypothetical superintelligent agents.