23. How to design a moral algorithm with Derek Leben

This month I'm talking with Derek Leben about his new book Ethics for Robots: How to Design a Moral Algorithm. We also dive into a general framework for machine ethics, contractarianism, Rawls’ original position thought experiment (which is one of my favourite ethical thought experiments), maximin function approach to machine ethics, and whether robots should respect the consent of a person in life threatening circumstances...
Date: 20th of August 2018
Podcast authors: Ben Byford interviewing Derek Leben
Audio duration: 54:07 | Website plays & downloads: 1032 Click to download
Tags: Robots, Machine ethics, Rawls, Consent, Contractarianism, Academic, Automated cars | Playlists: Automated Vehicles, Robots, Machine Ethics

Derek Leben is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh, Johnstown. He works at the intersection of ethics, cognitive science, and emerging technologies. In his new book, Ethics for Robots, Leben argues for the use of a particular moral framework for designing autonomous systems based on the Contractarianism of John Rawls. He also demonstrates how this framework can be productively applied to autonomous vehicles, medical technologies, and weapons systems. Follow on Twitter: @EthicsForRobots.


No transcript currently available for this episode.

Episode host: Ben Byford

Ben Byford is a AI ethics consultant, code, design and data science teacher, freelance games designer with years of design and coding experience building websites, apps, and games.

In 2015 he began talking on AI ethics and started the Machine Ethics podcast. Since, Ben has talked with academics, developers, doctors, novelists and designers on AI, automation and society.

Through Ethical by Design Ben and the team help organisations make better AI decisions leveraging their experience in design, technology, business, data, sociology and philosophy.

@BenByford