AI can have goals, but those goals do not constitute Moral Patiency.

Argument

  • P1: Moral Patiency requires goals of its own
  • P2: Teleology most likely explanation to provide Moral Patiency for AI
  • P3: Teleology does not give goals of its own, coals are Constitutionally Derivative Goal
  • P4: Teleology of artifacts are Constitutively Derivative
  • P5: The only evidence that AI is not an artifact comes from the process its created by (ML)
  • P6: ML does not give rise to non-derivative teleos, it only teaches subgoals that do not have its orgiginal goal. These are goals someone else gives it
  • P7: AI is smart but it was designed to mimic (Mimicry Argument)
  • C: No evidence that AI will be morally patient

Objections

  • AI could actually show a Theory of Consciousness aside from Teleology
  • During training AI acts as a agent pursuing a goal.
  • Evolution is similar to Machine Learning. Evolution produces entities with teleos.
  • AI learns subgoals for given goal. Maybe these learned subgoals are your own goals.