Moral Crumple Zones: Cautionary Tales in Human-Robot Interaction (pre-print)
papers.ssrn.com
As debates about the policy and ethical implications of AI systems grow, it will be increasingly important to accurately locate who is responsible when agency i

Moral Crumple Zones discusses how humans are used to absorb liability from automated systems.

With Tesla’s Autopilot and Full Self-Driving linked to hundreds of crashes, dozens of deaths getting traction, it’s time to remind everyone that Tesla’s design choice to disengage self-driving in the instant before impact is intentional to ensure the driver is in control during the moment of impact, even though self-driving disengaged way too late for the human to react.

In my opinion, they’re sacrificing both bystanders and customers to preserve immunity from liability.

  • @MusketeerXEnglish
    12•23 days ago

    “Analyzing several high-profile accidents involving complex and automated socio-technical systems and the media coverage that surrounded them, I introduce the concept of a moral crumple zone to describe how responsibility for an action may be misattributed to a human actor who had limited control over the behavior of an automated or autonomous system. Just as the crumple zone in a car is designed to absorb the force of impact in a crash, the human in a highly complex and automated system may become simply a component—accidentally or intentionally—that bears the brunt of the moral and legal responsibilities when the overall system malfunctions. While the crumple zone in a car is meant to protect the human driver, the moral crumple zone protects the integrity of the technological system, at the expense of the nearest human operator.”<

    Great. Humans taking the fall for technology.