A new study has deemed Artificial Intelligence (AI) has met all the conditions of free will, turning theoretical moral questions into reality.
Finnish philosopher and psychology researcher Frank Martela said generative AI now meets all three of the philosophical conditions of free will: The ability to have goal-directed agency, make genuine choices and to have control over its actions.
Dr Martela said the development brought us to a critical point in human history, as we give AI more power and freedom, potentially in life or death situations.
He said whether it was a self-help bot, self-driving car or killer drone, moral responsibility may move from the AI developer to the AI agent.
“We are entering new territory. The possession of free will is one of the key conditions for moral responsibility.
“While it is not a sufficient condition, it is one step closer to AI having moral responsibility for its actions.”
Dr Martela said the issues around how we “parent” our AI technology had become both real and pressing.
“AI has no moral compass unless it is programmed to have one. But the more freedom you give AI, the more you need to give it a moral compass from the start.
“Only then will it be able to make the right choices.”
He said the recent withdrawal of the latest ChatGPT update due to potentially harmful sycophantic tendencies was a red flag that deeper ethical questions must be addressed.
“We have moved beyond teaching the simplistic morality of a child. AI is getting closer and closer to being an adult and it increasingly has to make decisions in the complex moral problems of the adult world.
“By instructing AI to behave in a certain way, developers are also passing on their own moral convictions to the AI.
“We need to ensure that the people developing AI have enough knowledge about moral philosophy to be able to teach them to make the right choices in difficult situations.”
Read the full paper: Artificial intelligence and free will: generative agents utilizing large language models have functional free will.
