Can Artificial Intelligence Embody Moral Values?

TL;DR

This paper argues that AI, especially autonomous agents, can incorporate moral values like fairness and honesty, challenging the view that technology is inherently neutral, supported by empirical evidence from game environments.

Contribution

It introduces a conceptual framework and empirical evidence showing AI can embody moral values, countering the neutrality thesis.

Findings

AI agents with moral models behave more ethically in experiments

Computational models can represent fairness, honesty, and harm avoidance

Empirical results support AI's capacity to embody moral values

Abstract

The neutrality thesis holds that technology cannot be laden with values. This long-standing view has faced critiques, but much of the argumentation against neutrality has focused on traditional, non-smart technologies like bridges and razors. In contrast, AI is a smart technology increasingly used in high-stakes domains like healthcare, finance, and policing, where its decisions can cause moral harm. In this paper, we argue that artificial intelligence, particularly artificial agents that autonomously make decisions to pursue their goals, challenge the neutrality thesis. Our central claim is that the computational models underlying artificial agents can integrate representations of moral values such as fairness, honesty and avoiding harm. We provide a conceptual framework discussing the neutrality thesis, values, and AI. Moreover, we examine two approaches to designing computational models of morality, artificial conscience and ethical prompting, and present empirical evidence from text-based game environments that artificial agents with such models exhibit more ethical behavior compared to agents without these models. The findings support that AI can embody moral values, which contradicts the claim that all technologies are necessarily value-neutral.