Will Robots Know That They Are Robots? The Ethics of Utilizing Learning Machines

The aspirations for a global society of learning technology are high these days. Machine Learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) are two key terms of any socio-political and technological discourse. Both terms however, are riddled with confusion both on practical and conceptual levels. Learning for one thing, assumes that an entity gains and develops their knowledge bank in ways that are meaningful to the entity’s existence. Intelligence entails not just computationality but flexibility of thought, problem-solving skills and creativity. At the heart of both concepts rests the philosophy and science of consciousness. For in order to meaningfully acquire information, or build upon knowledge, there should be a core or executive function that defines the concerns of the entity and what newly encountered information means in relation to its existence. A part of this definition of concerns is also the demarcation of the self in relation to others. This paper takes a socio-cognitive scientific approach to deconstructing the two currently overused terms of ML and AI by creating a design fiction of sorts. This design fiction serves to illustrate some complex problems of consciousness, identity and ethics in a potential future world of learning machines.