Classifying the Autonomy and Morality of Artificial Agents

As we outsource more of our decisions and activities to machines with various degrees of autonomy, the question of clarifying the moral and legal status of their autonomous behaviour arises. There is also an ongoing discussion on whether artificial agents can ever be liable for their actions or become moral agents. Both in law and ethics, the concept of liability is tightly connected with the concept of ability. But as we work to develop moral machines, we also push the boundaries of existing categories of ethical competency and autonomy. This makes the question of responsibility particularly difficult. Although new classification schemes for ethical behaviour and autonomy have been discussed, these need to be worked out in far more detail. Here we address some issues with existing proposals, highlighting especially the link between ethical competency and autonomy, and the problem of anchoring classifications in an operational understanding of what we mean by a moral