Responsibility judgments by lay people for the outcomes caused by artificial intelligence: Psychological processes and cultural differences in judgments

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K03215
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 10010:Social psychology-related
• Research Institution: Waseda University
• Principal Investigator: Zemba Yuriko 早稲田大学, 理工学術院, 教授 (00548886)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: AI / 責任判断 / 原因帰属 / 文化

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The present research investigated how people judge responsibility for harm caused by AI, and whether there are culturally unique patterns in Japanese judgments. Results of Japan-U.S. comparative on-line experiments revealed both cultural commonalities and differences. In both cultures, people perceived AI to have less mental (thinking and feeling) and moral ability than a human or an organization, and when harm was caused by AI, compared to when it was caused by a human or an organization, people were more likely to extend responsibility to various targets. Also in both cultures, the more people thought AI can experience emotion, the more they perceived moral ability in AI. As cultural differences, Japanese tended to view the difference between the mental and moral capacities of "AI" and "a human or an organization" as smaller than that of Americans, and they also tended to emphasize the responsibility of the user rather than the manufacturer for the actions of AI.

Free Research Field

社会心理学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

人間や組織に対する責任判断は文化ごとの人間観や組織観によって異なることが知られていたが、人間を模した存在であるAIの場合に同様の文化差があるのかどうかは明らかではなかった。今回の調査を通じ、AIが関与する出来事への責任判断の特徴に、多くの文化共通性があることが明らかになった点に、まず意義がある。それと同時に日本人がアメリカ人ほどAIと人を差異化していない点や、AIの行為の責任を誰に多く負わせるかが文化によって違う点などいくつかの興味深い文化固有性が見いだされた点も意義がある。