Machine Law, Ethics, and Morality in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

What does it mean for a machine to act ethically—and who remains responsible when it makes a consequential decision? Machine Law, Ethics, and Morality in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, edited by Steven John Thompson, brings these questions into focus through research spanning philosophy, law, engineering, social science, and the arts.

Rather than reduce machine ethics to a set of rules or a familiar thought experiment, this collection examines how moral and legal questions arise across the development and use of intelligent systems. Its chapters consider both the design of AI and the wider human systems in which automated decisions take place.

Ethics beyond the algorithm

The book addresses questions of AI personhood, human responsibility, user autonomy, transparency, and the representation of legal and ethical requirements in intelligent systems. Contributors also examine bottom-up approaches to machine ethics, ethical rationality, and the limits of opaque or biased systems. Together, these perspectives invite readers to consider not only what a machine can do, but how its decisions affect people and institutions.

From self-driving cars to technology policy

Several chapters bring ethical questions into specific settings. Topics include the practical challenges of self-driving cars beyond the trolley problem, the role of policy in value-sensitive design, and how intelligent systems can be developed with ethical and legal considerations in view. The collection also reaches into less expected territory, exploring machines in artistic practice, moral amusement rides, moral psychology and artificial agents, and the implications of technological unemployment.

A multidisciplinary view of machine ethics

With contributions addressing questions from technical implementation to social consequences, this edited volume offers a broad view of the debates surrounding AI, robotics, law, and morality. It will interest students, researchers, and professionals working in AI ethics, technology policy, philosophy, law, robotics, and the social study of technology.

For readers seeking a thoughtful, cross-disciplinary account of how intelligent machines intersect with human values and responsibility, this collection provides a range of perspectives to consider.