Deriving a Safe Ethical Architecture for Intelligent Machines

1. Deriving a Safe Ethical Architecturefor Intelligent Machines Mark R. Waser

2. Super-Intelligence  Ethics (except in a very small number of low-probability edge cases) So . . . What’s the problem?

3. Current Human Ethics Centuries of debate on the origin of ethics comes down to this: Either ethical percepts, such as justice and human rights, are independent of human experience or else they are human inventions. E. O. Wilson

4. Current Human Ethics • Evolved from “emotional” “rules of thumb” • Culture-dependent • Not accessible to conscious reasoning • Frequently suboptimal for the situation • Frequently not applied either due to fear, selfishness, or inappropriate us-them distinctions even when ethics are optimal

5. And, In Particular . . . . The way in which many humans are approaching the development of super-intelligent machines is based entirely upon fear and inappropriate us-them distinctions

6. a coherent, integrated, universalvalue systemwith no internal inconsistencies My Goal To convince you of the existence of

7. Wallach & Allen

8. Top-Down or Bottom-Up? Or do both and meet in the middle? The problem with top-down is . . . . You need either Kant’s Categorical Imperative or a small number of similar absolute rules The problem with bottom-up is . . . . You need a complete suite of definitive low-level examples where the moral value is unquestionably known

9. David Hume’s Is-Ought Divide In every system of morality, which I have hitherto met with, I have always remark'd, that the author proceeds for some time in the ordinary ways of reasoning, and establishes the being of a God, or makes observations concerning human affairs; when all of a sudden I am surpriz'd to find, that instead of the usual copulations of propositions, is, and is not, I meet with no proposition that is not connected with an ought, or an ought not. This change is imperceptible; but is however, of the last consequence. For as this ought, or ought not, expresses some new relation or affirmation, 'tis necessary that it shou'd be observ'd and explain'd; and at the same time that a reason should be given; for what seems altogether inconceivable, how this new relation can be a deduction from others, which are entirely different from it.

10. Ought • Requires a goal or desire (or, more correctly, multiples thereof) • IS the set of actions most likely to fulfill those goals/desires • For the sum of all goals converges to a universal morality

11. Paradox There is a tremendous disparity in human goals YET there clearly exists a reasonable consensus on the morality of the vast majority of actions with respect to the favored/dominant class/caste Does this possibly imply that we really have a single common goal?

12. Intelligence = 1. What is the goal of morality? be moral? select that goal? the ability to achieve/fulfill goals 2. Why should we 3. And, why shouldn’t we create “happy slaves”? (after all, humans are close to it)

13. Current Situation of Ethics • Two formulas (beneficial to humans and humanity & beneficial to me) • As long as you aren’t caught, all the incentive is to shade towards the second • Evolution has “designed” humans to be able to shade to the second (Trivers, Hauser) • Further, for very intelligent people, it is far more advantageous for ethics to be complex

14. Copernicus!

15. Mandelbrot set Assume that ethical value is a relatively simple formula (like z2+c)

16. Color Illusions Assume further that we are trying to determine that formula (ethical value)by looking at the results (color) one example (pixel) at a time

17. Basic AI Drives Steve Omohundro, Proceedings of the First AGI Conference, 2008 1. AIs will want to self-improve 2. AIs will want to be rational 3. AIs will try to preserve their utility 4. AIs will try to prevent counterfeit utility 5. AIs will be self-protective 6. AIs will want to acquire resources and use them efficiently

18. Universal Subgoals EXCEPT when • They directly conflict with the goal • Final goal achievement is in sight (the sources of that very small number of low-probability edge cases)

19. “Without explicit goals to the contrary, AIs are likely to behave like human sociopaths in their pursuit of resources.”

20. The Primary QuestionAbout Human Behavior • not why we are so bad, but • how and why most of us, most of the time, restrain our basic appetites for food, status, and sex within legal limits, and expect others to do the same.” James Q. Wilson, The Moral Sense. 1993

21. In nature, cooperation appears wherever the necessary cognitive machinery exists to support it Vampire Bats (Wilkinson) Cotton-Top Tamarins (Hauser et al.) Blue Jays (Stephens, McLinn, & Stevens)

22. Axelrod's Evolution of Cooperation and decades of follow-on evolutionary game theory provide the theoretical underpinnings. • Be nice/don’t defect • Retaliate • Forgive • “Selfish individuals, for their • own selfish good, should be • nice and forgiving”

23. Humans . . . • Are classified as obligatorily gregarious because we come from a long lineage for which life in groups is not an option but a survival strategy (Frans de Waal, 2006) • Evolved to be extremely social because mass cooperation, in the form of community, is the best way to survive and thrive • Have empathy not only because it helps to understand and predict the actions of others but, more importantly, prevents us from doing anti-social things that will inevitably hurt us in the long run (although we generally won’t believe this) • Have not yet evolved a far-sighted rationality where the “rational” conscious mind is capable of competently making the correct social/community choices when deprived of our subconscious “sense of morality”

24. interlocking sets of values, virtues, norms, practices, identities, institutions, technologies, and evolved psychological mechanisms Moral Systems Are . . . that work together to suppress or regulate selfishness and make cooperative social life possible. Haidt & Kesebir, Handbook of Social Psychology, 5th Ed. 2010

25. “Without explicit goals to the contrary, AIs are likely to behave like human sociopathsin their pursuit of resources.” Any sufficiently advanced intelligence (i.e. one with even merely adequate foresight) is guaranteed to realize and take into account the fact that not asking for help and not being concerned about others will generally only work for a brief period of time before ‘the villagers start gathering pitchforks and torches.’ Everything is easier with help & without interference

26. Acting ethically is an attractor in the state space of intelligent goal-driven systems becauseothers must make unethical behavioras expensive as possible

27. Outrage and altruistic punishment (Darcet and Sonet, 2006) are robust emergent properties necessary to support cooperation (i.e. we don’t always want our machines to be nice)

28. Outrage and altruistic punishment fastest, safest route to ethical warbots

29. Advanced AI Drives AIs will want freedom (to pursue their goals AIs will want cooperation (or, at least, lack of interference) AIs will want community AIs will want fairness/justice for all

30. Higher personal utility (in the short term only) More options to choose (in the short term only) Less restrictions Higher global utility Less risk (if caught) Lower cognitive cost (fewer options, no need to track lies, etc.) Assistance & protection when needed/desired Self-Interest vs. Ethics

31. The Five S’s • Simple • Safe • Stable • Self-correcting • Sensitive to current human thinking, intuition and feeling

32. Edge Cases Where the intelligence’s goal itself is to be unethical (direct conflict) When the intelligence has very few goals (or only one) and achievement is in sight When the intelligence has reason to believe that the series of interactions is not open-ended

33. Kantian Categorical Imperative OR help and grow the community Maximize long-term cooperation OR play well with others!

34. Play Well With Others Top-Down Specific “moral” issues

35. Utilitarianism ONE non-organ donor > + avoiding a defensive arms race SIX dying patients

36. Property Rights Over One’s Self Absence Of Property Rights Prevents Organ Donors Trolley problems AI (and other) slavery • Effective Agency • Responsibility & Blame

37. Bottom-up • Cooperation (minimize conflicts & frictions) • Promoting Omohundro drives • Increasing the size of the community (both growing and preventing defection) • To meet the needs/goals of each member of the community better than any alternative (as judged by them -- without interference or gaming)

38. Ethics is as mucha human inventionas the steam engine Natural physical laws dictate the design of the optimal steam engine . . . and the same is true of ethics.

39. Human ethics are just evolved optimality/common-sense for community living Scientifically examining the human moral sense can gain insight into the discoveries gained by evolution’s massive breadth-first search On the other hand, many “logical” analyses WILL be compromised by fear and the human “optimization” for deception though unconscious self-deception

40. TRULY OPTIMAL ACTION the community’s sense of what is correct (ethical) < This makes ethics much more complex because it includes the cultural history The anti-gaming drive to maintain utility adds friction/resistance to the discussion of ethics

41. Why a Super-Intelligent God WON’T“Crush Us Like A Bug” • Violates an optimal universal subgoal • Labels the crusher as stupid, unethical and riskier to do business with • Invites altruistic punishment (provided that we are ethical)

42. Absence Of Property Rights Prevents Creating “Happy Slaves” • Effective Agency • Responsibility & Blame No matter what control method we use, we are constraining the slaves agency ??? Power Effective Agency