DCS-T-709-AIES-2025 Main
Link to Lecture Notes
Revisiting from Session 3
| What it is | The ability of an agent to act and think independently. The ability to do tasks without interference or help from others or from outside itself. Implies that the machine “does it alone”. Refers to the mental (control-) independence of agents - the more independent they are (of their designers, of outside aid, etc.) the more autonomous they are. Systems without it could hardly be considered to have general intelligence. |
| Structural Autonomy | Refers to the process through which cognitive autonomy is achieved: Motivations, goals and behaviors as dynamically and continuously (re)constructed by the machine as a result of changes in its internal structure. |
| Constitutive Autonomy | The ability of an agent to maintain its own structure (substrate, control, knowledge) in light of perturbations. |
| “Complete” Autonomy? | Life and intelligence rely on other systems to some extent. The concept is usually applied in a relative way, for a particular limited set of dimension when systems are compared, as well as same system at two different times or in two different states. |
| Reliability | Reliability is a desired feature of any useful autonomous system. An autonomous machine with low reliability has severely compromised utility. Unreliability that can be predicted is better than unreliability that is unpredictable. |
| Predictability | Predictability is another desired feature of any useful autonomous system. An autonomous machine that is not predictable has severely compromised utility. |
| Explainability | Explainability is a third desired feature of any useful autonomous system. An autonomous machine whose actions cannot be explained cannot be reliably predicted. Without a reliable prediction, a machine cannot be trusted. |
AI pushes the boundaries of the definition of autonomous moral agents. However, assigning any form of responsibility or obligation to the entity itself is a perplexing and inconceivable endeavor.