Digital Humans to Combat Loneliness and Social Isolation: Ethics Concerns and Policy Recommendations.

algorithmic bias artificial intelligence (AI) bioethics digital companions digital humans loneliness privacy public health ethics social isolation

Journal

The Hastings Center report
ISSN: 1552-146X
Titre abrégé: Hastings Cent Rep
Pays: United States
ID NLM: 0410447

Informations de publication

Date de publication:
Jan 2024
Historique:
medline: 23 2 2024
pubmed: 23 2 2024
entrez: 23 2 2024
Statut: ppublish

Résumé

Social isolation and loneliness are growing concerns around the globe that put people at increased risk of disease and early death. One much-touted approach to addressing them is deploying artificially intelligent agents to serve as companions for socially isolated and lonely people. Focusing on digital humans, we consider evidence and ethical arguments for and against this approach. We set forth and defend public health policies that respond to concerns about replacing humans, establishing inferior relationships, algorithmic bias, distributive justice, and data privacy.

Identifiants

pubmed: 38390675
doi: 10.1002/hast.1562
doi:

Types de publication

Journal Article

Langues

eng

Sous-ensembles de citation

IM

Pagination

7-12

Informations de copyright

© 2024 The Hastings Center.

Références

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National Academies of Engineering, Science, and Medicine, Social Isolation and Loneliness in Older Adults: Opportunities for the Health Care System (Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 2020).
V. H. Murthy, Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation: The U.S. Surgeon General's Advisory on the Healing Effects of Social Connection and Community (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2023), https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/surgeon-general-social-connection-advisory.pdf; Z. Lederman, “Loneliness at the Age of COVID-19,” Journal of Medical Ethics 49 (2023): doi:10.1136/jme-2022-108540;
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Regarding animation technology, see, for example, Soul Machines, accessed February 6, 2024, https://www.soulmachines.com/.
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“The AI Companion Who Cares,” Replika, accessed January 26, 2024, https://replika.ai/.
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E. Anderson, Value in Ethics and Economics (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993), 150-51.
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For an overview of algorithmic bias, including algorithmic oppression in search engines, see S. U. Noble, Algorithms of Oppression (New York: New York University Press, 2018). For an analysis of bias embedded in representation, see R. Sparrow, “How Robots Have Politics,” in Oxford Handbook of Digital Ethics, ed. C. Véliz (New York: Oxford University Press, 2021): doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198857815.001.0001.
S. Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism (New York: Hachette Book Group, 2019), 48.
For comprehensive discussions of meaningful consent to AI, see S. Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism (New York: Hachette Book Group, 2019), and A. Ho, Live Like Nobody Is Watching: Relational Autonomy in the Age of Artificial Intelligence Health Monitoring (New York: Oxford University Press, 2023). For discussion of privacy interdependence, see B. Evans, “Big Data and Individual Autonomy in a Crowd,” in Big Data Health Law and Bioethics, ed. G. Cohen et al. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018), 19-28. For discussion of mechanisms being developed to address privacy interdependency, see B. Kamleitner and V. Mitchell, “Your Data Is My Data: A Framework for Addressing Interdependent Privacy Infringements,” Journal of Public Policy and Marketing 38, no. 4 (2019): doi:10.1177/0743915619858924.
These proposals incorporate ideas set forth in Exec. Order No. 14110, Fed. Reg. 88, no. 210 (Nov. 1, 2023); Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence of the National Science and Technology Council, National Artificial Intelligence Research and Development Strategic Plan 2023 Update (Washington, DC: Office of Science and Technology Policy, 2023), https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/National-Artificial-Intelligence-Research-and-Development-Strategic-Plan-2023-Update.pdf; Executive Office of the President, National Science and Technology Council Committee on Technology, National Artificial Intelligence Research and Development Strategic Plan (Washington, DC: Office of Science and Technology Policy, 2016), https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/sites/default/files/whitehouse_files/microsites/ostp/NSTC/preparing_for_the_future_of_ai.pdf; and the European Union's AI Act (see “EU AI Act: First Regulation on Artificial Intelligence,” European Parliament, created June 8, 2023, updated June 14, 2023, https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/headlines/society/20230601STO93804/eu-ai-act-first-regulation-on-artificial-intelligence). Our proposals also borrow from M. M. Mello, N. H. Shah, and D. S. Char, “President Biden's Executive Order on Artificial Intelligence-Implications for Health Care Organizations,” Journal of the American Medical Association 331, no. 1 (2023): doi:10.1001/jama.2023.25051.

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