Perspectives on Moral Agency for HRI: Cognitive Construct or Ontological State? Toward Moral Agency Quantification in Human-Robot Interaction

Boyoung Kim and Elizabeth Phillips and Qin Zhu and Tom Williams

Workshop on Perspectives on Moral Agency in Human-Robot Interaction

Establishing when, how, and why robots should be considered moral agents is key for advancing human-robot interaction (HRI). Robotic moral agency has significant implications for how people should and do hold robots morally responsible, ascribe blame to them, develop trust in their actions, and determine when these robots wield moral influence. In this paper, we review three perspectives on robot moral agency, and present a framework which can be used to initiate research on measuring and quantifying robot moral agency. In particular this framework grounds robot moral agency in evidence of robot autonomy, interactivity, adaptability, and capacity for morally relevant action. Finally, we close with a list of discussion points for the community on the topic of robot moral agency.