IN WHAT SENSE ARTIFICIAL AGENTS SHOULD BE A SUBJECT TO MORAL JUDGMENTS?
This paper asks the question whether artificial agents are subject to moral judgments. In other words can robots be assessed as good or bad and does harming them bring moral and legal consequences. Moral judgents is a good term which also entails such notions as “rights”, “dignity” and personality. Most of the essay deals with the possible criticism of the initial statement which falls into two distinct categories.
The first criticism denies the personality in artificial agents. Author points out both to the general case of such a denial and to particular cases, giving counter arguments to each one. The second criticism concerns empathy and compassion which are the foundation for legal and moral norms regulating communication between the individuals. The idea according to which robots are equal to humans and should not be treated as pets is defended.
The main conclusion of the paper is that artificial agents should be the subject to moral judgeents and should be treated equally to humans. That is both a moral and political position.
Key words: artificial intelligence, robot, ethics, morality, applied ethics;
