Study suggests it's time to debate the morality of machines

A new study out today says it's a critical time to debate the morality of machines.

We already share roads, air space and hospitals with automated systems, but that's also led to a number of harmful incidents.

Malfunctioning software has been linked to the fatal crashes of two Boeing 737 Max in Ethiopia and Indonesia.

Last year, a self-driven car struck and killed a pedestrian in Arizona.

Kurt Gray, co-author of Holding Robots Responsible: The Elements of Machine Morality, says he and other scientists and psychologists have been “thinking about these ideas of technology and ethics for sometime”.

The Arizona incident “really made us think," he says. 

“The time is now, robots are harming other humans. And so this is when we really need to figure out how people see it and then how we can make sense of that”.

The paper published in the Trends and Cognitive Sciences Journal looks at how human minds will try to make sense of robot responsibility.

“I think robots probably now are similar to babies. We’re pretty sure that they don't have moral responsibility right now, but as babies grow into children and adolescence and into adults. I think robots are on that trajectory”.

The psychology professor says the more autonomy the robot has, the more likely it'll be blamed.

“As soon as we don't know what robots are going to do, that's when we see freewill and that's when we see us ascribing them responsibility”.

Auckland University Roboticist, Dr Henry Williams believes we’re still “very far away” from that reality but acknowledges that others think we’re getting closer.

He and a group of engineers signed a letter to the government warning about the use of artificial intelligence in weapons.

“Quite a lot of us are completely opposed to the idea behind it. It's just that level of safety and consideration, do we really want to apply them to autonomous cars? Let alone to systems that are designed to kill people?”

While self-aware machines may still be the realm of science-fiction for now, defining these issues are what will shape our future.