Publications
Publications
- August 2023 (Revised December 2023)
- HBS Case Collection
Automating Morality: Ethics for Intelligent Machines
By: Joseph L. Badaracco Jr. and Tom Quinn
Abstract
As autonomy became a more significant part of modern life – most notably in autonomous vehicles (AVs), such as Teslas – ethical debates about whether and how to impart ethics to machines heated up. Utilitarians pointed out that autonomous vehicles crashed much less often than human-driven cars, making their adoption a net positive in terms of lives saved; deontologists worried about the implications of programming a car to swerve to kill its passengers instead of pedestrians, for example, among other high-stakes “trolley problems.” Ethical issues abounded across different levels of automation and across borders. How should AVs be programmed for complex, uncertain, ethically challenging situations? Was there anything innately human about moral reasoning, or could companies imbue AVs with sound ethical frameworks?
Keywords
Cost vs Benefits; Judgments; Fairness; Moral Sensibility; Values and Beliefs; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Disruptive Innovation; Technology Adoption; Risk and Uncertainty; Cognition and Thinking; Technological Innovation; Auto Industry; Technology Industry; Africa; Asia; Europe; North and Central America; Oceania; South America
Citation
Badaracco, Joseph L., Jr., and Tom Quinn. "Automating Morality: Ethics for Intelligent Machines." Harvard Business School Case 324-007, August 2023. (Revised December 2023.)