A Model of Free Will for Artificial Entities

TL;DR

This paper proposes a model for artificial free will where an agent's sense of free will arises from a decision process combining predictable and unpredictable choices, challenging traditional deterministic views.

Contribution

It introduces a novel decisional mechanism for artificial entities that models free will as a combination of predictable and random choices.

Findings

The model links free will to a dual decision process.

Artificial agents can simulate free will through this mechanism.

The approach offers a new perspective on free will in AI systems.

Abstract

The impression of free will is the feeling according to which our choices are neither imposed from our inside nor from outside. It is the sense we are the ultimate cause of our acts. In direct opposition with the universal determinism, the existence of free will continues to be discussed. In this paper, free will is linked to a decisional mechanism: an agent is provided with free will if having performed a predictable choice Cp, it can immediately perform another choice Cr in a random way. The intangible feeling of free will is replaced by a decision-making process including a predictable decision-making process immediately followed by an unpredictable decisional one.