Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!lll-crg!nike!ucbcad!ucbvax!RELAY.CS.NET!rggoebel%watdragon.waterloo.edu From: rggoebel%watdragon.waterloo.edu@RELAY.CS.NET (Randy Goebel LPAIG) Newsgroups: mod.ai Subject: Re: moral responsibility Message-ID: <8611051725.AA18147@watdragon.uucp> Date: Wed, 5-Nov-86 12:25:26 EST Article-I.D.: watdrago.8611051725.AA18147 Posted: Wed Nov 5 12:25:26 1986 Date-Received: Thu, 6-Nov-86 21:36:30 EST References: <8611050749.AA24116@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Organization: The ARPA Internet Lines: 27 Approved: ailist@sri-stripe.arpa Patrick Hayes writes > ...Weizenbaum has made a successful career by > systematically attacking AI research on the grounds that it is somehow > immoral, and finding a large and willing audience. Weizenbaum does, indeed and unfortunately, attract a large, willing and naive audience. For some reason, there seems to be a large not-quite- computer-literate population that wants to believe that AI is potentially dangerous to ``real'' intelligence. But it is not completely fair to conclude that Weizenbaum believes AI to be immoral; it is correct for Patrick to qualify his conclusion as ``somehow'' immoral. Weizenbaum acknowledges the general concept of intelligence, with both human and artificial kinds as manifestations. He even prefers the methodology of the artificial kind, especially when it relieves us from experiments on, say, the visual cortex of cats. Weizenbaum does claim that certain aspects of AI are immoral but, as the helicopter example illustrates, his judgment is not exclusive to AI. As AI encroaches most closely to those things Weizenbaum values (e.g., human dignity, human life, human emotions), it is natural for him to speak about the potential dangers that AI poses. I suspect that, if Weizenbaum were a nuclear physicist instead of a computer scientist, he would focus more attention on the immorality of fission and fusion. It is Weizenbaum's own principles of morality that determine the judgements. He acknowledges that, and places his prinicples in the public forum every time he speaks.