“Moral Machines, Teaching Robots Right from Wrong” by Wendell Wallach and Colin Allen

This book is a thought-provoking and timely exploration of the ethics of artificial intelligence and robotics. In this book, the authors examine the challenges of designing and deploying intelligent machines that are capable of making moral decisions in a way that aligns with human values. The book is divided into three parts. In the first part, the authors introduce the concept of “machine morality” and the need for machines to be programmed with ethical principles. In the second part of the book, Wallach and Allen explore various ethical theories and frameworks that could be used to guide the development of machine morality, and in the third part of the book, the authors consider the practical implications of machine morality.

My favorite part of this book is how thought provoking it is. Especially with the recent outbreak of ChatGPT. In the book the authors quote two social scientists saying, “Friedman and Kahn suggest that decision support tools start a slippery slope toward the abandonment of moral responsibility by human decision makers. As people come to trust the advice of a DST, it can become more difficult to question that advice.” How true is that thought today..

On the contrary something I didn’t like was that this was mainly the entirety of the book itself. Each section of each chapter was just a different question about how to go about the idea of making machines moral. The book made a lot of suggestions about what needs to be done, but none of these are concrete ideas with steps. Maybe that is because the book is about 15 years old and the technology just wasn’t then what it is now.

Overall, “Moral Machines” is an engaging and thought-provoking book that raises important questions about the future of intelligent machines and their role in society. The authors provide a comprehensive overview of the ethical challenges facing the field of AI and robotics, and offer valuable insights into how these challenges might be addressed. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in the intersection of technology and ethics. I would give this book a rating of 3 out 5 stars. I enjoyed it, but would like a book that is a little more technical and goes in to more depth about methods to develop this type of moral technology for bots. (ChatGPT was used in part in this review.)