Bad machines corrupt good morals

Nils Köbis, Jean-François Bonnefon and Iyad Rahwan
Additional contact information
Nils Köbis: Max Planck Institute for Human Development - Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
Iyad Rahwan: Max Planck Institute for Human Development - Max-Planck-Gesellschaft

Post-Print from HAL

Abstract: Machines powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) are now influencing the behavior of humans in ways that are both like and unlike the ways humans influence each other. In light of recent research showing that other humans can exert a strong corrupting influence on people's ethical behavior, worry emerges about the corrupting power of AI agents. To estimate the empirical validity of these fears, we review the available evidence from behavioral science, human-computer interaction, and AI research. We propose that the main social roles through which both humans and machines can influence ethical behavior are (a) role model, (b) advisor, (c) partner, and (d) delegate. When AI agents become influencers (role models or advisors), their corrupting power may not exceed (yet) the corrupting power of humans. However, AI agents acting as enablers of unethical behavior (partners or delegates) have many characteristics that may let people reap unethical benefits while feeling good about themselves, indicating good reasons for worry. Based on these insights, we outline a research agenda that aims at providing more behavioral insights for better AI oversight.

Keywords: Machine behavior; Behavioral ethics; Corruption; Artificial intelligence (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-big, nep-cbe, nep-hme and nep-isf
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-03292360v1
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Published in Nature Human Behaviour, 2021, 5 (6), pp.679-685. ⟨10.1038/s41562-021-01128-2⟩

Downloads: (external link)
https://hal.science/hal-03292360v1/document (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Bad machines corrupt good morals (2023)
Journal Article: Bad machines corrupt good morals (2021)
Working Paper: Bad machines corrupt good morals (2021)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03292360

DOI: 10.1038/s41562-021-01128-2

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Post-Print from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().