IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 28

The concept of morality is
thought to be a distinctly human
construct, developed through
social values and codes as well
as an individual's experience.
universal nor immutable. Societal
values and standards vary over time
and geography. Acceptance of premarital sex, women in combat, homosexuality, and bans on slavery
illustrate the seismic shift in values
some societies have experienced
in recent decades. If a software developer in the U.S. programs an
autonomous vehicle to prioritize the
safety of the passenger over animals
on the road, could the outcome
of the decision made by the same
autonomous machine deployed in
India be considered amoral where
cows are considered holy and have
right of way on roads? Should companies developing autonomous
vehicles prioritize commercial gain
over a utilitarian concept of safety?
Research [4] indicates that buyers
are less likely to purchase a car that
prioritizes the safety of others over
the occupants.
Moral decision-making is highly
subjective and individualized. It
is contextual, specific to the facts,
and personalized depending on the
experience, bias, and understanding of the facts of the person making
the moral judgments. Individuals
will react differently to reports that
a Texan was not indicted for bludgeoning another man to death. If
we learn that evidence suggests that
the victim was raping a female, we
may alter our position. When we
learn that the man who committed
the murder was the father, as was
the case here, and the female was

28

his five-year old daughter,
the outcome may sit comfortably with our own moral
compass. On the specific
fact s, the act of murder
was defensible by State law
[5] and the father called
911 in an attempt to save
his daughter's rapist's life.
The death was legally and,
some may a r g u e moral ly, justified.
Morality is a nebulous concept.
It is best evidenced [6] by the reaction of an individual when faced with
a choice requiring quick action. Such
decisions are based on our own internal programming and made in
split seconds. They are not always
rational or logical - for example, a
decision to jump in to save a drowning child at the risk of one's own
safety or return to a burning building to save a family pet. Humans
are opaque, flawed, and sometimes
make bad judgments. With hindsight, we can analyze actions and
interrogate after the fact. The truth,
however, is that morality remains the
ultimate black box. The same individual in the same situation except
for one variant may make a different decision. Given the mutable and
individualized nature of morality, is
it feasible that a programmer can
develop software with acceptably harmonized moral standards?
Morality is a uniquely human concept. Unlike other life forms, humans
are considered to possess the singular capacity to judge their own
actions and those of others. Helen
Guldberg [7] writes that humans are
not born with this ability but are conditioned to consciously make moral
choices. While scientists have found
that some animal species exhibit
signs of a moral system, the concept
of morality is thought to be a distinctly human construct, developed
through social values and codes as
well as an individual's experience.
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine

The conundrum for software developers is that while AI technologies
can equal and surpass human notions
of computational intelligence (for
example, Google's Alpha Go champion), morality remains a solely human
domain. While machines, in particular, humanoids [8], may appear to
possess reflective thoughts, the output is, at least with present technologies, a result of the data inputted,
the rules used to train the algorithms, supervision, and iteration to
achieve a desirable outcome.
This is more than an academic
debate. Today, AI systems are deployed in a plethora of everyday decision-making scenarios, including
autonomous machines, insurance
premium settings, and recruitment
practices. Companies deploying
algorithms that make consequential decisions are hiring philosophers and social science majors to
grapple with these quandaries. It is
certain that, in the near future, more
and more of us will be faced with
the consequences of autonomous
decision-making machines (trains,
trucks, cars, buses) in our daily commute or school run. An autonomous
machine must be equipped to make
life-and-death decisions in a manner consistent with the law or, in the
absence of laws, acceptable social
norms. Adopting an engineer's
problem-solving mindset, the solution would be to test the decisionmaking process among a sample
group, determine the most frequently selected response, and train the
algorithm accordingly. There are,
however, ethical implications with
imposing someone else's version of
morality on another as well as the
statistical probability that some of
the time, the algorithm will produce
an output that does not align with
our expectations. The algorithms
will be trained on the individual or
collective bias of the sample group.
The issue is that morality is deeply
∕

JUNE 2018



Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018

Contents
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - Cover1
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - Cover2
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 1
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - Contents
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 3
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 4
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 5
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 6
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 7
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 8
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 9
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 10
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 11
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 12
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 13
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 14
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 15
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 16
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 17
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 18
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 19
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 20
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 21
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 22
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 23
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 24
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 25
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 26
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 27
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 28
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 29
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 30
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 31
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 32
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 33
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 34
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 35
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 36
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 37
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 38
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 39
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 40
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 41
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 42
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 43
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 44
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 45
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 46
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 47
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 48
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 49
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 50
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 51
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 52
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 53
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 54
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 55
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 56
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 57
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 58
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 59
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 60
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 61
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 62
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 63
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 64
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 65
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 66
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 67
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 68
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 69
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 70
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 71
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 72
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 73
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 74
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 75
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 76
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 77
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 78
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 79
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 80
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 81
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 82
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 83
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 84
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 85
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 86
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 87
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 88
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - Cover3
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - Cover4
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_september2023
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_june2023
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_march2023
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_december2022
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_september2022
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_june2022
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_march2022
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_december2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_september2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_june2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_march2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_december2020
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_september2020
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_june2020
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_march2020
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_december2019
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_september2019
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_june2019
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_march2019
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_december2018
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_september2018
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_june2018
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_march2018
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_winter2017
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_fall2017
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_summer2017
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_spring2017
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_winter2016
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_fall2016
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_summer2016
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_spring2016
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_winter2015
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_fall2015
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_summer2015
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_spring2015
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_winter2014
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_fall2014
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_summer2014
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_spring2014
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_winter2013
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_fall2013
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_summer2013
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_spring2013
https://www.nxtbookmedia.com