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INTRODUCTION/ABSTRACT Almost since the birth of the computer, scientists and non-scientists alike have wondered about, dreamed of, and recoiled from the idea of Artificial Intelligence, or "AI"--the idea that a computer could portray or actually possess human-like intelligence. There has long been a major research effort to create such AI, with a variety of approaches and philosophical bases to work from. What is rarely given much attention in AI research, however, is the ethics of artificial intelligence. This project provides a broad overview of ethical questions raised both by artificial intelligence as a research effort and artificial intelligence as a philosophical premise. First, it examines the basis of AI today: its philosophy, its goals, and its approaches. It then attempts to draw a distinction between AI as research and AI as philosophy before exploring a number of major ethical questions which AI goals and successes have raised. In conclusion, it will question the ethics of the hype that seems to connect the philosophy and research of AI today. Although the scope of this project prevents any more than a high-level, introductory glimpse at any of the topics raised herein, it will hopefully raise questions which could be pursued by the interested reader in the sources in the bibliography provided. PS: for those who do not recognize all the robots on the main page, they are, in order by section:
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