(Im)permissibility is overrated
Richard Y Chappell,
Good Thoughts,
Jan 05, 2023
In my ethics course I found the idea expressed in this paper important enough to be started right up front in a section called the Joy of Ethics, and that is to challenge the idea that "delineating the boundary between 'permissible' and 'impermissible' actions (i.e., providing a criterion of rightness)" is "the central question of ethics." It's not, and it shouldn't be. While Richard Chappell uses this as an argument in favour of consequentialist ethics, I think we can take the wider stance and say that ethics creates the possibility of doing good in the world, whatever that may happen to be. And just so with AI: while so many people are focused on how AI can go wrong, with good reasons for such caution, I think a more fulsome approach will consider the global good AI may be able to produce, especially when it comes to the advancement of education around the world.
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