Nudging using autonomous agents : risks and ethical considerations

Nallur, Vivek and Renaud, Karen and Gudkov, Aleksei (2024) Nudging using autonomous agents : risks and ethical considerations. In: The 21st European Conference on Multi-Agent Systems, 2024-08-26 - 2024-08-28, Dublin, Ireland. (In Press)

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Abstract

This position paper briefly discusses nudging, its use by autonomous agents, potential risks and ethical considerations while creating such systems. Instead of taking a normative approach, which guides all situations, the paper proposes a risk-driven questions-and-answer approach. The paper takes the position that this is a pragmatic method, that is transparent about beneficial intentions, foreseeable risks, and mitigations. Given the uncertainty in AI and autonomous agent capabilities, we believe that such pragmatic methods offer a plausibly safe path, without sacrificing flexibility in domain and technology.

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