99 - Trusting Untrustworthy Machines and Other Psychological Quirks

In this episode I chat to Matthias Uhl. Matthias is a professor of the social and ethical implications of AI at the Technische Hochschule Ingolstadt. Matthias is a behavioural scientist that has been doing a lot of work on human-AI/Robot interaction. He focuses, in particular, on applying some of the insights and methodologies of behavioural economics to these questions. We talk about three recent studies he and his collaborators have run revealing interesting quirks in how humans relate to AI decision-making systems. In particular, his findings suggesting that people do outsource responsibility to machines, are willing to trust untrustworthy machines and prefer the messy discretion of human decision-makers over the precise logic of machines. Matthias's research is fascinating and has some important implications for people working in AI ethics and policy.

You can download the episode here or listen below. You can also subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify and other podcasting services (the RSS feed is here).

• Matthias's Faculty Page
• 'Hiding Behind Machines: Artificial Agents May Help to Evade Punishment' by Matthias and colleagues
• 'Zombies in the Loop? Humans Trust Untrustworthy AI-Advisors for Ethical Decisions' by Matthias and colleagues
• 'People Prefer Moral Discretion to Algorithms: Algorithm Aversion Beyond Intransparency' by Matthias and colleagues