Robots and dignity from an Afro-communitarian perspective

Abstract

One of the criticisms raised against using technologies powered with artificial intelligence (AI) is that some of their uses would undermine human dignity. This argument is prevalent in healthcare and military robotics, where it is argued that the use of these AI technologies in various domains undermines or violates the dignity of those human beings who are in contact with them. In this thesis, I look to investigate Under which conditions various AI technologies would undermine human dignity. To answer this question, I first develop an African communitarian conception of dignity, which I will then use to evaluate the impact of AI technologies on dignity in the domains of healthcare and warfare. What is different about communitarian conceptions proposed here is that they prize different normative values, such as community over individual interest and duties over rights. In my conception, I argue that one has dignity when they have the capacity for communal relationships as subjects or objects. To honour this dignity, this dignity is respecting other agents’ capacity. Based on this evaluation, I argue that there are clear cases where AI technologies would undermine dignity, just as there are also clear cases where their use would enhance it. This thesis contributes to the philosophical discourse in two main ways. First, it advances an African Communitarian conception of dignity as a plausible conception to evaluate the impact of AI technologies on human dignity. Secondly, it evaluates the impact of dignity using the proposed conception formulated, bringing out relational considerations that have not been salient in debates up to now.