Ethics

A study by Prof. Iyad Rahwan of the Media Lab finds that while people want autonomous vehicles that minimize casualties, they ultimately want the car they’re driving in to prioritize passengers over pedestrians, writes Amy Dockser Marcus of The Wall Street Journal.

A new study co-authored by Prof. Iyad Rahwan grapples with the ethics of autonomous vehicles, writes Hal Hodson for New Scientist. When it comes to saving passengers versus pedestrians, researcher worry the findings will “[limit] the promise of this technology to dramatically cut road deaths.”

A new study co-authored by MIT researchers examines if consumers would be comfortable buying a self-driving car programmed for utilitarianism, reports Sarah Kaplan for The Washington Post.  The researchers found that “participants largely agreed autonomous vehicles should be utilitarian, they didn’t necessarily believe the cars would be programmed that way.”

Kate Darling of the MIT Media Lab speaks with Wired reporter Katie Collins about what the destruction of a hitchhiking robot says about how people relate to robots. "Can we change people's empathy with robots,” says Darling. This is "at the core of what I view as ethics. I don't think robot ethics is about robots, it is about humans."

Professor Kenneth Oye speaks with WBUR’s Sacha Pfeiffer about his recent research that details a new way to alter the genomes of organisms and the need for a public discussion about the potential implications and benefits of this new technology.