Can robotic AI systems be virtuous and why does this matter?

Constantinescu, M. & Crisp, R. (2022). Can robotic AI systems be virtuous and why does this matter?. International Journal of Social Robotics, 14, 1547–1557.

Contribution: raising a virtue-ethics-based concern regarding deployment of social robots relying on deep learning AI and developing a novel argumentation to show that robotic AI systems cannot genuinely be virtuous but can only behave in a virtuous way; highlighting implications for current research in machine ethics, technology ethics, and Human–Robot Interaction.

Blame it on the AI? On the moral responsibility of Artificial Moral Advisors.

Constantinescu, M., Vică, C., Uszkai, R. & Voinea, C. (2022). Blame it on the AI? On the moral responsibility of Artificial Moral Advisors. Philosophy & Technology, 35(2), 1-26.

Contribution: arguing that Artificial Moral Advisors (AMAs) cannot qualify as morally responsible agents based on their incapacity to meet a set of four conditions moral responsibility, previously developed by the PI in the virtue ethics traditions; arguing that AMAs could instead morally enhance users if they are interpreted as enablers for moral knowledge of the contextual variables surrounding human moral decision-making, with the unexpected implication that such a use might enlarge human moral responsibility.

Understanding responsibility in Responsible AI. Dianoetic virtues and the hard problem of context

Constantinescu, M., Voinea, C., Uszkai, R. & Vică, C. (2021). Understanding responsibility in Responsible AI. Dianoetic virtues and the hard problem of context. Ethics and Information Technology, 23, 803-814.

Contribution: connecting the ethical dimension of responsibility in “Responsible AI” with Aristotelian virtue ethics, where notions of context and dianoetic virtues play a grounding role for the concept of moral responsibility; exploring the practical implications along the triadic dimensions of ethics by design, ethics in design and ethics for designers.

 

Virtue and virtuousness in organizations: Guidelines for ascribing individual and organizational moral responsibility

Constantinescu, M., & Kaptein, M. (2021). Virtue and virtuousness in organizations: Guidelines for ascribing individual and organizational moral responsibility. Business Ethics, the Environment & Responsibility, 30(4), 801–817.

Contribution: developing a two-level account of moral responsibility in organizations that connects individual and organizational moral responsibility through the concepts of virtue and virtuousness; this is further operationalized into practical guidelines to ascribe degrees of individual and organizational blame, which can be used as a tool by policymakers and industry.