Human Cooperation When Acting Through Autonomous Machines

Abstract

Recent times have seen an emergence of intelligent machines that act autonomously on our behalf, such as autonomous vehicles. Despite promises of increased efficiency, it is not clear whether this paradigm shift will change how we decide when our self-interest (e.g., comfort) is pitted against the collective interest (e.g., environment). Here we show that acting through machines changes the way people solve these social dilemmas and we present experimental evidence showing that participants program their autonomous vehicles to act more cooperatively than if they were driving themselves. We show that this happens because programming causes selfish short-term rewards to become less salient, leading to considerations of broader societal goals. We also show that the programmed behavior is influenced by past experience. Finally, we report evidence that the effect generalizes beyond the domain of autonomous vehicles. We discuss implications for designing autonomous machines that contribute to a more cooperative society.

The interplay of emotion expressions and strategy in promoting cooperation in the iterated prisoner’s dilemma

“…The findings presented here provide insight into the interplay of actions and emotion in shaping human behavior and this has important practical implications. Autonomous machines that act on people’s behalf are poised to become pervasive in society 15 – 19 but, for these machines to succeed and be adopted it is essential that people are able to trust and cooperate with them. Whereas simulating appropriate strategies in these machines is the natural starting point, here we emphasize that designers cannot afford to ignore nonverbal communication, in particular, emotion expressions 19 , 41 , 42 .…”

“…These findings provide insight into the importance, relative influence, as well as the limits, of behavioral strategies and emotion signals for emergence of cooperation. The results also have important practical applications for the design of increasingly pervasive autonomous machines-such as robots, self-driving cars, drones, and personal assistants-which will inevitably rely on cooperation with humans for their success [15][16][17][18][19] .…”

“…Participants were instructed they would engage in the task with other participants but, to increase experimental control and implement these strategies precisely, participants engaged with a computer script. Similar methods have been used in previous research 15,19 , all experimental procedures were approved by the Gifu University IRB, and participants were fully debriefed at the end.…”

Cooperation with autonomous machines through culture and emotion

“…Humans often categorize others as belonging to distinct social groups, distinguishing "us" versus "them", and this categorization influences cooperation, with decisions tending to favor ingroup members and, at times, discriminating against out-group members [1][2][3][4]. As autonomous machines-such as self-driving cars, drones, and robots-become pervasive in society [5][6][7], it is important we understand whether humans also apply social categories when engaging with these machines, if decision making is shaped by these categories and, if so, how to overcome unfavorable biases to promote cooperation between humans and machines. Here we show that, when deciding whether to cooperate with a machine, people engage, by default, in social categorization that is unfavorable to machines but, it is possible to override this bias by having machines communicate cues of affiliative intent.…”

Modelling Stereotyping in Cooperation Systems

“…Extensive research has been successful in establishing conditions and mechanisms that promote indirect reciprocity. However, as machines are developed that feature cognition and autonomy, interest in cooperation is reaching beyond humans [20]. Transportation is just one emerging example where technology, through autonomous vehicles, will encounter cooperative decision making [14].…”