Value-Aware Artificial Intelligence

Introduction

By Value-Aware AI, we mean AI that includes a component performing the same function as human moral consciousness, namely the capacity to acquire and maintain a value system. This system is used to decide whether certain actions are morally acceptable and to be aware of the value systems of its users, allowing the AI to understand the intent and motivation of their actions and to properly and correctly engage with them.

Project Overview

The VALAWAI project will develop a toolbox to build Value-Aware AI resting on two pillars, both grounded in science:

1. An architecture for consciousness inspired by the Global Neuronal Workspace model, developed on the basis of neurophysiological evidence and psychological data.
2. A foundational framework for moral decision-making based on psychology, social cognition, and social brain science.

Application Areas

The project will demonstrate the utility of Value-Aware AI in three application areas where a moral dimension urgently needs to be included:

1. Social Media: Addressing negative side effects such as disinformation, polarization, and the instigation of asocial and immoral behavior.
2. Social Robots: Designed to be helpful or influence human behavior positively, but potentially enabling manipulation, deceit, and harmful behavior.
3. Medical Protocols: Ensuring that medical decision-making is value-aligned.

Contribution to AI Development

The project contributes to the general goal of making EU-based AI more competitive by being more reliable, robust, ethically guided, explainable, and hence trustworthy. It does not propose new guidelines and regulations (for which there is already considerable effort) but advances the state of the art in core AI technology. This ensures that ethics is embedded inside applications, making them grounded in universal, European, and personal values.