Self-control on the path toward artificial moral agency

IF 2.1 3区心理学 Q3 COMPUTER SCIENCE, ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Cognitive Systems Research Pub Date : 2025-01-01 DOI:10.1016/j.cogsys.2024.101316

Paul Bello, Will Bridewell

{"title":"Self-control on the path toward artificial moral agency","authors":"Paul Bello, Will Bridewell","doi":"10.1016/j.cogsys.2024.101316","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The ability of agents to commit to their plans and see them through is a core concept in the philosophy of action (<span><span>Bratman, 1987</span></span>, <span><span>Holton, 2009</span></span>) and is considered to be a defining feature of having an intention. Seeing plans through in the face of highly compelling opportunities for action that are incompatible with our current commitments requires self-control. In this review paper, we draw upon ancient and modern literature on self-control along with contemporary ideas about the cognitive architecture supporting intentional action to argue that any computational account of moral agency must include an approach to self-control. In addition, we extract and develop a list of necessary features of the phenomena against which individual modeling efforts can be compared. The ARCADIA cognitive system will be discussed in light of this list of features and used to demonstrate both success and failure in a highly simplified self-control dilemma. Finally, we end by discussing a path toward more functionally complete models of agency and control, along with offering perfunctory thoughts on some of the more conceptually challenging issues to address in the future.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55242,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Systems Research","volume":"89 ","pages":"Article 101316"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1000,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Cognitive Systems Research","FirstCategoryId":"102","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1389041724001104","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"COMPUTER SCIENCE, ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

The ability of agents to commit to their plans and see them through is a core concept in the philosophy of action (Bratman, 1987, Holton, 2009) and is considered to be a defining feature of having an intention. Seeing plans through in the face of highly compelling opportunities for action that are incompatible with our current commitments requires self-control. In this review paper, we draw upon ancient and modern literature on self-control along with contemporary ideas about the cognitive architecture supporting intentional action to argue that any computational account of moral agency must include an approach to self-control. In addition, we extract and develop a list of necessary features of the phenomena against which individual modeling efforts can be compared. The ARCADIA cognitive system will be discussed in light of this list of features and used to demonstrate both success and failure in a highly simplified self-control dilemma. Finally, we end by discussing a path toward more functionally complete models of agency and control, along with offering perfunctory thoughts on some of the more conceptually challenging issues to address in the future.

查看原文本刊更多论文

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Cognitive Systems Research 工程技术-计算机：人工智能

CiteScore

9.40

自引率

5.10%

发文量

审稿时长

>12 weeks

期刊介绍： Cognitive Systems Research is dedicated to the study of human-level cognition. As such, it welcomes papers which advance the understanding, design and applications of cognitive and intelligent systems, both natural and artificial. The journal brings together a broad community studying cognition in its many facets in vivo and in silico, across the developmental spectrum, focusing on individual capacities or on entire architectures. It aims to foster debate and integrate ideas, concepts, constructs, theories, models and techniques from across different disciplines and different perspectives on human-level cognition. The scope of interest includes the study of cognitive capacities and architectures - both brain-inspired and non-brain-inspired - and the application of cognitive systems to real-world problems as far as it offers insights relevant for the understanding of cognition. Cognitive Systems Research therefore welcomes mature and cutting-edge research approaching cognition from a systems-oriented perspective, both theoretical and empirically-informed, in the form of original manuscripts, short communications, opinion articles, systematic reviews, and topical survey articles from the fields of Cognitive Science (including Philosophy of Cognitive Science), Artificial Intelligence/Computer Science, Cognitive Robotics, Developmental Science, Psychology, and Neuroscience and Neuromorphic Engineering. Empirical studies will be considered if they are supplemented by theoretical analyses and contributions to theory development and/or computational modelling studies.