ICES Seminar in Experimental Economics and Game Theory

The Moral Machine Experiment

Friday, November 12, 2021 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM EST
Online Location, Zoom Meeting

The ICES Seminar in Experimental Economics and Game Theory of the Fall 2021 semester will feature:

Edmond Awad

University of Exeter

The Moral Machine Experiment

 

Please contact ICES Office Manager (sbahabib@gmu.edu) for Zoom link.

 

Abstract

I describe the Moral Machine, an internet-based serious game exploring the many-dimensional ethical dilemmas faced by autonomous vehicles. The game enabled us to gather 40 million decisions from 3 million people in 200 countries/territories. I report the various preferences estimated from this data, and document interpersonal differences in the strength of these preferences. I also report cross-cultural ethical variation and uncover major clusters of countries exhibiting substantial differences along key moral preferences. These differences correlate with modern institutions, but also with deep cultural traits. I discuss how these three layers of preferences can help progress toward global, harmonious, and socially acceptable principles for machine ethics. Finally, I describe other follow up work that build on this project.

 

For more information about the Seminar Series, please visit the Seminar Schedule homepage.