Google's Driverless Cars Undermine Moral Responsibility In Road Accidents

Ray Kurzweil, a computer scientist and Google's director of engineering, recently spoke at Singularity University about driverless cars and its moral implications. When asked if robots should be trusted to kill, Kurzweil cited Isaac Asimov's Three Rules of Robotics and discredited the commandment, Thou Shall Not Kill.

Google Faces A Moral Dilemma

Kurzweil mentioned an example where a car is headed to a child and the only way to avoid it is to hit five children in another direction. For humans, they will be able to decide by determining what is morally right. They can choose what is the lesser of two evils.

But driverless cars face the problem of how to make that kind of choice. Kurzweil did not give a clear answer whether or not it is possible for robots to have the same moral character as humans do, stated CNET.

Thou Shall Not Kill Can't Be True

Kurtzweil said that the commandment "Thou Shall Not Kill" is wrong. He justified it by citing another situation where it's absolutely moral to kill the person who's going to blow up a building or a city in order to stop his evil act. However, he made an exception that apathy toward saving someone's life may be the same as actually killing the person.

Isaac Asimov's Three Rules of Robotics

In spite of the lack of inherent morality in robots, Kurzweil stated that Isaac Asimov's Three Rule of Robotics is a "good pass" for "moral programming" in driverless cars. These three rules are as follows: 1) a robot may not injure a human being or through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm, 2) a robot must obey orders given to it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law and 3) a robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First and Second Law.

Google Has Yet To Address This Issue

Andrew Chatham, a principal engineer, might have an answer to the question of moral responsibility in driverless cars. And it is simple, "the answer is almost always 'slam on the brakes.'" Chatham admitted that their main goal as engineers is to make sure that the cars won't get in that kind of situation. Unless they encounter this problem, they would not be able to come up with a definite solution.

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