Trust in “Moral” Machines

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• Prof Jim A.C. Everett, University of Kent
• Friday 31 October 2025, 16:30-18:00
• Ground Floor Lecture Theatre, Department of Psychology.

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As use of artificial intelligence (AI) becomes more widespread, machine systems are increasingly required not only to display artificial intelligence but artificial morality too. AI is already used to aid decisions about life support, criminal sentencing, and the allocation of scarce medical resource, and so-called “moral machines” are even being thought to be able to act as “artificial moral advisors” by giving moral advice and helping to improve human moral decision making. In this talk, I will explore what it means to trust AI in the moral domain. Drawing on insights from social psychology and moral cognition, I will discuss how people conceptualise trust in AI, how judgments of effectiveness and ethicality intertwine, and how perceptions of intelligence shape attributions of morality. I will consider how people trust “artificial moral advisors,” and how people trust other humans who rely on AI for socio-relational tasks. Drawing on these findings, I will ask whether – and in what sense – we should place trust in ‘moral’ machines, and what kind of future we are willing to accept as AI takes on roles that shape not only our decisions, but our relationships, values, and humanity itself.

Host: Prof Simone Schnall (ss877@cam.ac.uk)

This talk will be recorded and uploaded to the Zangwill Club Youtube channel in due course.

This talk is part of the Zangwill Club series.

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