The aim of this project is to examine how the frameworks we currently use to think about responsibility towards others—including concepts such as harm, wrongdoing, fault, causation, redress, and blame—apply in a world where artificial intelligence technologies (AI) play a major role in making decisions, evaluating choices, and determining courses of action.  Much of the evaluative apparatus we use to think about wrongdoing, responsibility and redress assume that decisions are made by human actors embedded in social and institutional contexts.

The rise of AI—and, in particular, autonomous and semi-autonomous systems—challenges this assumption, and raises serious issues in relation to the adequacy of frameworks based on it.  How, for example, do we deal with an AI that displays predilections which, in a human, would be racist—as studies in the US suggest some predictive systems used in making parole decisions are actually doing?  In technical terms, how do we create systems to detect and monitor such behaviour?  In ethical terms, are categories such as ‘racism’ useful ways of thinking about stochastic decision-making processes that differ fundamentally from evaluative processes in humans?  In legal terms, how do we translate these into the language of legal rules and doctrines, and deal with their relationship with existing legal frameworks?

Similar issues also arise in relation to how we think about redress.  There are a range of frameworks—prophylactic, risk management, harm mitigation, laissez-faire, externalities-oriented, etc.—that one might use for thinking about the problem of redressing harm caused by AI wrongdoing.  Yet there has been no systematic study of which of these we should use, on what basis we should choose between them, what their strengths and weaknesses are, or what challenges might be posed in adapting legal frameworks to deal with AI.

The proposed project will assemble an interdisciplinary team—computer scientists, ethicists, philosophers, lawyers, criminologists, and sociologists—to develop a programme for innovative, high-impact, funded research on this issue.

Lead Academic at Lead University

Phillip MorganYork Law School, University of York

Lead Academics at Other Universities

Vincent MüllerInterdisciplinary Ethics Applied Centre, University of Leeds

Helen KennedyDepartment of Sociological Studies, University of Sheffield

Other members of Staff Associated with this Project

TT Arvind York Law School, University of York

John McDermid OBEDepartment of Computer Science/AAIP, University of York

Ailbhe O’LoughlinYork Law School, University of York

David BeerDepartment of Sociology, University of York

Alex HallDepartment of Politics, University of York

Ibrahim HabliDepartment of Computer Science/AAIP, University of York

Isra BlackYork Law School, University of York

David EfirdDepartment of Philosophy, University of York

Zoe PorterDepartment of Philosophy, University of York

Cade McCallDepartment of Psychology ,University of York

Dimitris TsarapatsanisSchool of Law, University of York

Mark DavisDepartment of Sociology, University of Leeds

Jamie DowInterdisciplinary Ethics Applied Centre, University of Leeds

Chris MegoneInterdisciplinary Ethics Applied Centre, University of Leeds

Carl FoxInterdisciplinary Ethics Applied Centre, University of Leeds

Vania DimitrovaDepartment of Computer Science, University of Leeds

Rob RichardsonDepartment of Mechanical Engineering, University of Leeds

Xavier D L’HoiryDepartment of Sociological Studies, University of Sheffield

Gwilym PryceSheffield Methods Institute, University of Sheffield

James Law  Sheffield Robotics, University of Sheffield

Nathan HughesDepartment of Sociological Studies, University of Sheffield

Mauricio ÁlvarezDepartment of Computer Science, University of Sheffield

Noel SharkeyDepartment of Computer Science, University of Sheffield

Amanda SharkeyDepartment of Computer Science, University of Sheffield

Keith FrankishDepartment of Philosophy, University of Sheffield

Paul Martin, iHumanDepartment of Sociological Studies, University of Sheffield

Stevienna de Saille, iHuman Department of Sociological Studies, University of Sheffield

Ross BellabyDepartment of Politics, University of Sheffield

Dan GoodleySchool of Education, University of Sheffield

Annamaria CarusiDepartment of Infection, Immunity & Cardiovascular Disease, University of Sheffield

Michael SzollosySheffield Robotics, University of Sheffield

Jonathan AitkenDepartment of Automatic Control & Systems Engineering, University of Sheffield,

Jo BatesInformation School, University of Sheffield

 

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