Applicable legal frameworks
Québec
Réflexions éthiques
Ethical declaration based on 10 principles (well-being, respect for autonomy, privacy protection, etc.). A recognized Quebec reference.
Quebec sector examples
Recherche éthique
Un comité d'éthique universitaire au Québec doit se prononcer sur les obligations envers des agents conversationnels susceptibles d'avoir des préférences encodées.
Recommended mitigations
- 1.2Risk Management
Systematic methods for identifying, assessing, and managing AI-related risks, for comprehensive, organization-wide risk governance.
- 1.7Societal Impact Assessment
Processes that assess the effects of AI systems on society, including impacts on employment, power dynamics, political processes, and cultural values.
- 1.XGovernance and Oversight Control Not Otherwise Categorized
Formal organizational structures and policy frameworks establishing human oversight mechanisms and decision-making protocols that are not otherwise categorized.
- 4.4Governance Disclosure
Formal disclosure mechanisms that communicate governance structures, decision-making frameworks, and safety commitments to increase transparency and enable external oversight of high-stakes AI decisions.
Documented risks (3)
Entries from the AI Risk Repository (MIT) classified under this subdomain. Original content in English.
3 entries
09.06.01AI rights and responsibilities
"We note literature—which gives us the domain termed Robot Rights—addressing the rights of the AI itself as we develop and implement it. We find arguments against [38] the affordance of rights for artificial agents: that they should be equals in ability but not in rights, that they should be inferior by design and expendable when needed, and that since they can be designed not to feel pain (or anything) they do not have the same rights as humans. On a more theoretical level, we find literature asking more fundamental questions, such as: at what point is a simulation of life (e.g. artificial intelligence) equivalent to life which originated through natural means [43]? And if a simulation of life is equivalent to natural life, should those simulations be afforded the same rights, responsibilities and privileges afforded to natural life or persons? Some literature suggests that the answer to this question may be contingent on the intrinsic capabilities of the creation, comparing—for example—animal rights and environmental ethics literature"
09.06.03AI death
"The literature suggests that throughout the development of an AI we may go through several generations of agents which do not perform as expected [37] [43]. In this case, such agents may be placed into a suspended state, terminated, or deleted. Further, we could propose scenarios where research funding for a facility running such agents is exhausted, resulting in the inadvertent termination of a project. In these cases, is deletion or termination of AI programs (the moral patient) by a moral agent an act of murder? This, an example of Robot Ethics, raises issues of personhood which parallel research in stem cell research and abortion. "
61.01.08Harms to non-humans
"Large-scale harms to animals and the development of AI capable of suffering."
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