Source Sheet, #4
Sana Masud
Professor Dempster
UNIV 112
21 October 2014
Research Question: What is artificial intelligence? Is the creation of artificial
intelligence ethical?
MLA Citation: Sparrow, Robert. "The Turing Triage Test." Ethics and Information
Technology Ethics Inf Technol 6.4 (2004): 203-13. Springer. Web. 2 Nov. 2015.
Background: Robert Sparrow holds a BA from the University of Melbourne and a PhD
in Philosophy from the Australian National University. His research consists of topics
such as bioethics, political philosophy, and applied ethics.
Main Claim:
Robots have the capability of becoming super intelligent and therefore we must set up
tests to monitor their advancement.
Sub Claims:
1. There is Weak AI and Strong AI
2. Defining intelligence is hard and instead humans test for how we may be able to
tell that a robot is intelligent, which brought the Turing Test.
3. Turing Test sets standard too high,
4. Cognitive abilities determine a life’s right to live.
5. It is reasonable to think that humans can create robots that can function at a
greater level than human beings.
6. Machines do experience pleasure or pain.
7. We have no way of telling a robots true emotions.
Evidence:
1. Weak AI perform complex human tasks and only seem intelligent, but strong AI,
or true intelligence, is still being created.
2. Intelligence is the ability to reason, think logically, use imagination, learn, and
exercise judgment. (p 204)
3. Monkeys are considered intelligent and cannot pass the Turing Test. (p 204)
4. An adult chimp’s life may be preserved over a damaged baby because of superior
cognitive abilities. (p 207)
5. If we can produce robots that are able to function at the same level as humans it is
assumed that robots then will be created to function at a greater level than
humans. (p 207)
6. Though machines cannot truly feel the emotion, they know what the emotions do
and gather information from the usefulness of the emotions.
7. There is no way to test what a robot feels.
Quotations & Responses:
 “As soon as AIs begin to possess consciousness, desires and projects then it seems
as though they deserve some sort of moral standing. “ (p 203) This is the
Source Sheet, #4




statement that begins the subject or robot ethics, which argues that if a machine
has a consciousness, they are subject to some rights.
“…it will not be unprecedented therefore if it turns out that machines sometimes
have a better claim to the status of personhood than some human beings.” (p 207)
This quote states the gravity of this technology we are developing. If we judge
species on their mental capacity, and robots are created to a higher degree of
cognitive abilities than a human, then is a robots life more valuable than a human?
“…for a machine to pass the Turing Test it must be capable of being the object of
remorse, grief and sympathy, as moral emotions such as these are partially
constitutive of our concept of a person. But, I claim, machines are not appropriate
objects of these responses because they are incapable of achieving the individual
personality towards which they are oriented.” (p 212) This quote speaks to
understanding and reading human relationships. There is a connection between
humans that is precognitive and internal. Emotions that others go through is only
visible to us by what they express, and sometimes, we are not aware of it. The
attitude towards a soul is a human experience that cannot be recreated in a robot
form.
“Unless we could sympathise with the suffering of an AI as we moved to throw
the switch that would end its existence, grieve for its ‘‘death’’, and be haunted by
remorse at the thought of the life that we have ended, it would not be reasonable
to preserve its existence over that of a human being.” (p 212) This quote clearly
states the position of human life over robots. For now, machines are not the main
concern in a life or death situation. However, when they become one, that is when
we know they are intelligent.
“There is simply no way of establishing a bridge between the machine’s
behaviour and any judgements about its purported inner life.” (p 210) A
machine’s “emotions” are calculated and can be manipulated by the machine or
human, therefore we are unsure of the connection is has with its surroundings and
its personal beliefs.
Questions & Conclusions: This source started a great conversation about being able to
tell when a robot is truly intelligent. The Turing Triage test that Sparrow proposes creates
a discussion of the value of a robot’s life. Though this has not occurred yet, it is vital that
these conversations happen now.