Effects of Individual Priorities on Ethical Decisions in Traffic Use of Artificial Intelligence

Abstract

Artificial intelligence, a software or computer program with a learning mechanism is used in many fields. In the present study, the aim was to determine the effect of individual priorities on ethical decisions in terms of the use of artificial intelligence in traffic, through scenarios created by using the Moral Machine, an online experimental platform designed to identify ethical dilemmas. A questionnaire consisting of three parts was used to collect the data. In the first part, socio-demographic characteristics were questioned. The second part included the Importance of Health Scale. In the last part, the participants were given 12 scenario examples of an unmanned vehicle moving in traffic with the illustrations, and they were asked what their decisions and justifications of their decisions were. The study population comprises 75 health care academicians in Çankırı University. It was observed that most of the participants preferred to protect a larger number of people rather than a small number of people, a woman rather than a man, a child rather than an adult, a physician rather than an adult who is not a physician. The scenarios created in the study contain more and more variables that should be considered. Therefore, as the scenarios continued, the participants had difficulty in making decisions. Artificial intelligence has become one of the problem clusters of bioethics due to the increase in its use in many areas directly related to human life, such as health, apart from traffic.