Perceptions of agency : untangling the knotty web of Al

Artificial intelligence systems (Al) have become a ubiquitous part of modern life. Yet their complexity has prevented a concrete conceptualization that correctly map the web of human actors and computational processes involved in Al. This opaque representation of AI poses questions for accountability and governance, such as who is responsible when an Al makes a moral transgression? This thesis takes a discursive and empirical approach to reifying Al as a specific network of human actors with real world outcomes. It explores the phenomenon of anthropormophization, by which Al is endowed with human-like characteristics, and shows how the extent to which a Al system is anthropomorphized can affect the attribution of responsibility to human actors. This thesis does not offer a normative suggestion for whom society should blame when Al make moral transgressions, but rather offers a view into human folk intuitions.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master

Department dc:contributor.department

Program in Media Arts and Sciences (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2019

Author dc:creator

• Epstein, Ziv(Ziv G.)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Iyad Rahwan.

• Program in Media Arts and Sciences

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/123637

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/123637