Artificial intelligence and decision making problems: The need for an ethical context

Abstract

Computers process information and make decisions. Until recently, the decisions they made were not complex, but due to the incessant technological advances that occur, systems based on Artificial Intelligence are achieving levels of competence in decision-mak-ing that in many contexts equal or exceed people. These are Autonomous Decision Systems that, although they can increase the capacity and efficiency of people in their fields of action, could also replace them, something that worries the whole of Society. Avoiding missfunctions in these systems is a priority social, scientific and technological objec-tive, which requires having theoretical models that collect all the richness and variety of decision problems, that define precisely the elements that characterize them and that address the ethical approaches which should guide its operation. This paper describes each of these aspects in a separate section.