Robot: Asker of questions and changer of norms?

Abstract

Recent work in behavioral ethics has brought to light the role that technologies play in shaping human ethics. Language-capable autonomous robots are uniquely positioned to impact human ethics. It is critical to identify and mitigate negative consequences of this technology on human morality, as robots will likely be deployed in increasingly ethically significant contexts over time. We argue that the current status quo for dialogue systems in autonomous agents can (1) cause robots to unintentionally miscommunicate their ethical intentions, and (2) weaken humans' contextual application of moral norms.