Although virtue ethics has repeatedly been proposed as a suitable framework for the development of artificial moral agents (AMAs), it has been proven difficult to approach from a computational perspective. In this work, we present the first technical implementation of artificial virtuous agents (AVAs) in moral simulations. First, we review previous conceptual and technical work in artificial virtue ethics and describe a functionalistic path to AVAs based on dispositional virtues, bottom-up learning, and top-down eudaimonic reward. We then provide the details of a technical implementation in a moral simulation based on a tragedy of the commons scenario. The experimental results show how the AVAs learn to tackle cooperation problems while exhibiting core features of their theoretical counterpart, including moral character, dispositional virtues, learning from experience, and the pursuit of eudaimonia. Ultimately, we argue that virtue ethics provides a compelling path toward morally excellent machines and that our work provides an important starting point for such endeavors.

Amazon, the owner of Whole Foods, is finally bringing the sort of high-tech features we were expecting to the nationwide grocery chain. Its cashierless Just Walk Out tech will soon arrive in two Whole Foods locations, after starting off in Amazon's own Go grocery stores. Just Walk Out uses computer vision, sensors and AI to let you walk into a store, sign in with an app, fill up your bags and leave without joining a checkout line or scanning your items. I've tested out the systems at my local Amazon Fresh, and I'll begrudgingly admit, it's magical. It's not my go-to grocery store, so I usually only pick up an item or two.

After launching it in Go stores and then bringing it to larger Fresh supermarkets, Amazon's cashierless "Just Walk Out" tech will soon arrive in two Whole Foods locations. The service, which lets you pick up goods from shelves and (yep) just walk out, is coming to new stores in Washington DC and Sherman Oaks, California next year, the company announced. "By collaborating with Amazon to introduce Just Walk Out shopping at these two Whole Foods Market stores, our customers will be able to... save time by skipping the checkout line," said Whole Foods co-founder John Mackey. As we've detailed previously, Just Walk Out uses computer vision, sensors and AI to let you walk into a store, sign in with an app, fill up your bags and leave without the need to join a checkout line. On top of using the tech in its own Go and Fresh stores, Amazon signed a deal last year to license its technology to third-party retailers.