Higher-Order Responsibility

2025/06/01 by Jiang, Junli, Naumov, Pavel
#Artificial Intelligence (cs.AI) #Computational Complexity (cs.CC) #Computer Science and Game Theory (cs.GT) #FOS: Computer and information sciences

paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2506.01003

Abstract

In ethics, individual responsibility is often defined through Frankfurt's principle of alternative possibilities. This definition is not adequate in a group decision-making setting because it often results in the lack of a responsible party or "responsibility gap''. One of the existing approaches to address this problem is to consider group responsibility. Another, recently proposed, approach is "higher-order'' responsibility. The paper considers the problem of deciding if higher-order responsibility up to degree d is enough to close the responsibility gap. The main technical result is that this problem is Π_2d+1-complete.

Citations

• Mind the gaps: Assuring the safety of autonomous systems from an engineering, ethical, and legal perspective

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