Research on the moral status of social robots based on relational continuity

Abstract

Concerns about the moral status of social robots have drawn a lot of attention and debate due to the quick development of artificial intelligence technology. There are differing degrees of shortcomings in the standards used by the intrinsic property, relational ethics and ethical behaviourism approaches to determine moral status. As a result, relational continuity is suggested in this work as the primary standard for determining the moral status of social robots. With an emphasis on the socially interactive consequences of human activities, this article contends that moral judgment should be based on their irreplaceability in social relational networks. Based on this, an interaction embeddedness/functional dependency/emotional connection three-dimensional assessment model is developed. By striking a balance between theoretical rigour and practical viability, this standard not only closes the gaps between conventional methods, but also provides a fresh avenue for the normative design of artificial intelligence ethics.