ABSTRACT
Those fretfully debating artificial intelligence (AI) might best start by appraising the half dozen general pathways under exploration in laboratories around the world. While these general approaches overlap, they offer distinct implications for what characteristics emerging, synthetic minds might display, including (e.g.) whether it will be easy or hard to instill human-style ethical values. Most problematic may be those efforts taking place in secret. The “Moore's Law crossing” argument is appraised, in light of discoveries that brain computation may involve much more than just synapses. Will efforts to develop Sympathetic Robotics tweak compassion from humans long before automatons are truly self-aware? It is argued that most foreseeable problems might be dealt with the same way that human versions of oppression and error are best addressed – via reciprocal accountability. For this to happen, there should be diversity of types, designs and minds, interacting under fair competition in a generally open environment.This suggests that a major, underdeveloped category of AI research may entail crafting these new entities to maintain individual identity, as biological systems developed cell walls, immune systems and a protective sense of separate identity.
