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Written by Nicole Gillis (student of UNIV 3275)<\/i> The hesitance towards giving the robots sexual maturity can also reveal the ethical reservations that some cultures have towards sexual acts.\u00a0 From my experience, in Western culture, there is stigmatization against sex work because it is perceived to be cheapening the intimate act of sexual intercourse.\u00a0 In class, these reservations were apparent when discussing the idea of the \u201cUncanny Valley<\/a>\u201d established by Masahiro Mori.\u00a0 Some students felt strongly that sex-dolls fell into the Uncanny Valley because of their human-like features in addition to the idea that sex is an intimate act shared between two people out of passion.\u00a0 This notion dismisses the fact that sex can be recreational or even occupational and does not necessarily have to involve intimacy.\u00a0 If viewed as a recreational act, would the characters of The Lifecycle of Software Objects<\/em>have been more willing to grant their digients sexual maturity?\u00a0 Additionally, if the digients were able to become sex workers, would they face problems with the Uncanny Valley as barriers to their work?<\/p>\n In Chiang\u2019s novella, the resistance of most of the humans to grant their AIs sexual maturity connects to the idea of expressive authenticity mentioned in the Colton et al. 2018 \u201cIssues of Authenticity in Autonomously Creative Systems\u201d paper.\u00a0 According to this paper, as defined by Denis Dutton expressive authenticity is \u201cwhere an artefact genuinely reflects an author\u2019s beliefs and values in a socio-historical context,\u201d (p. 273).\u00a0 This quote is in reference to the authenticity of a work of art produced by an author; however, one can argue that it can apply to the digients in the form of the question: Do the digients\u2019 desires to learn about sexual maturity genuinely reflect their own beliefs and values given their simulated socio-historical context? I would argue yes.\u00a0 Because the digients have been raised like human children and even granted aesthetic maturity after pushing an update to \u201c[\u2026] change the proportions of the digients\u2019 bodies and faces to make them look more mature,\u201d (Chiang, 2010, p. 76) then they should be granted the opportunity to continue exploring aspects of human development. Their demands are authentic given the expectations that the humans have established in terms of continuing their maturity over time, so why not continue?\u00a0The humans are reluctant to give their digients sexual maturity because they have been raised like children and thus the humans blurred the line between human children and AI.<\/p>\n In addition, Colton et al. argue that computational creativity can be made authentic by allowing a system to have intrinsic motivation.\u00a0If extended beyond creativity, the authenticity of an AI as a lifeform could also be justified through its ability to show intrinsic motivation.\u00a0 In this framework, the digients of Chiang\u2019s novella would have achieved authenticity because they were making decisions that were beyond their manmade programming.\u00a0For example, Jax the digient tells Ana: \u201cNo playing. Want job,\u201d out of its own free will because it realized that if it gives Ana money, she would have a form of income and could work less on her own to spend more time with Jax.\u00a0 This event is an example of Jax having intrinsic motivation to do something to benefit someone other than itself based on an emotional bond or at the very least a positive association with being played with.\u00a0 Examples of intrinsic motivation in AI further blur the line between humans and AIs.<\/p>\n
\nNote: This post is a modified version of the author\u2019s late-term synthesis exam essay\u00a0submission. Part 1 is here<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n