DARPA to Tackle Ethics of Artificial Intelligence

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) officials will include a panel discussion on ethics and legal issues at the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Colloquium being held March 6-7 in Alexandria, Virginia. "We're looking at the ethical, legal and social implications of our technologies, particularly as they become powerful and democratized in a way," reveals John Everett, deputy director of DARPA's Information Integration Office. Questions abound regarding the ethics and legal implications of AI, such as who is responsible if an self-driving automobile runs over a pedestrian, or whether military weapon systems should have a "human in the loop" controlling unmanned systems to prevent mistakes on the battlefield. Those questions become more acute as AI becomes more prevalent. "A lot of the technology of the 20th century was not widely accessible to people. You have high school students editing genes," Everett notes.