大模型能像人一样做道德选择,不靠意识也能有责任。
Moral Agency in Silico: Exploring Free Will in Large Language Models
- 用信息论和哲学整合出可衡量的自由意志标准
- 大模型在道德困境中能理性调整决策并响应新信息
- 适合关注AI伦理与意识本质的跨学科研究者
本研究探讨确定性系统(特别是大语言模型)是否具备道德代理的功能能力与相容论意义上的自由意志。我们基于丹内特的相容论框架,结合香农信息论与弗洛里迪的信息哲学,构建了一个功能性的自由意志定义,强调理性回应与价值对齐是判断道德责任的关键,而非要求形而上的自由意志。香农理论指出复杂信息处理支持适应性决策,弗洛里迪哲学则将代理视为光谱,依据系统复杂性和响应能力分级评估道德地位。分析显示,大模型在道德困境中的决策具备理性反思能力,并能根据新信息与矛盾调整选择,表现出符合该功能定义的道德代理特征。研究挑战了意识是道德责任前提的传统观点,表明具有自指推理能力的系统可在人工与生物系统中实现不同程度的自由意志与道德推理。本文提出一个涵盖人工与生物系统的自由意志光谱框架,为人工智能时代的代理与伦理研究奠定基础。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
This study investigates the potential of deterministic systems, specifically large language models (LLMs), to exhibit the functional capacities of moral agency and compatibilist free will. We develop a functional definition of free will grounded in Dennett's compatibilist framework, building on an interdisciplinary theoretical foundation that integrates Shannon's information theory, Dennett's compatibilism, and Floridi's philosophy of information. This framework emphasizes the importance of reason-responsiveness and value alignment in determining moral responsibility rather than requiring metaphysical libertarian free will. Shannon's theory highlights the role of processing complex information in enabling adaptive decision-making, while Floridi's philosophy reconciles these perspectives by conceptualizing agency as a spectrum, allowing for a graduated view of moral status based on a system's complexity and responsiveness. Our analysis of LLMs' decision-making in moral dilemmas demonstrates their capacity for rational deliberation and their ability to adjust choices in response to new information and identified inconsistencies. Thus, they exhibit features of a moral agency that align with our functional definition of free will. These results challenge traditional views on the necessity of consciousness for moral responsibility, suggesting that systems with self-referential reasoning capacities can instantiate degrees of free will and moral reasoning in artificial and biological contexts. This study proposes a parsimonious framework for understanding free will as a spectrum that spans artificial and biological systems, laying the groundwork for further interdisciplinary research on agency and ethics in the artificial intelligence era.
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