Open AccessThere Is No Agency Without Attention
Author(s) -
Bello Paul F.,
Bridewell Will
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
ai magazine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.597
H-Index - 79
eISSN - 2371-9621
pISSN - 0738-4602
DOI - 10.1609/aimag.v38i4.2742
Subject(s) - agency (philosophy) , perspective (graphical) , norm (philosophy) , accountability , distraction , control (management) , meaning (existential) , public relations , computer science , political science , knowledge management , artificial intelligence , sociology , psychology , cognitive psychology , law , social science , psychotherapist
Over the decades, the view of agency in artificial intelligence (AI) has narrowed to one that emphasizes acting in a way that maximizes reward. This perspective fails to make contact with the broader academic and legal communities where agency is bound up with personal accountability. To explore this gap in meaning, we introduce a spectrum of control that characterizes standard approaches to constructing agents and points the way toward agents that can be held responsible. The linchpin that enables agents to control their actions in the “right way” is attention. Broadly construed, attention lets an agent that is responsive to its environment consider the relationships among its actions, goals, and norms while also avoiding distraction. This ability enables strategic norm violations and opens the door to artificial, human‐level agency.