Statutes Ethics Board

Context Ethical Decision Making

The goal of the company Mauhn is to develop safe and beneficial AGI. AGI is the emergence of intelligence via an algorithm of quality similar to or better than human intellectual capabilities in the full scope of generality.

Artificial general intelligence (AGI) is not limited by biological limitations and could potentially become more intelligent than humanity. This poses an existential risk to humanity. According to a survey done by the Future of Humanity Institute in 2008, correspondents estimated on average a 5% likelihood that humanity would be extinct by 2100 due to AGI.

Or, as Steven Hawking and Stuart Russell said: “Success in creating AI would be the biggest event in human history. Unfortunately, it might also be the last”

Mauhn has two goals:

  • Creating positive social impact, taking into account both the high-impact opportunities and threats AGI brings.

  • Be an example in international ethical and AI safety decision making. 


Responsibilities Ethics Board

The ethics board’s responsibilities comprise all ethical and safety topics within the company. We define the scope as follows: “All topics that might impact (1) safety and beneficence of the development and commercial deployment of the technology of AGI and (2) the structure of our society in relation to AGI.”

Ethical and safety topics include, but are not limited to:

  • Defining the limit up until which level affiliates are allowed to decide about life and death for virtual or physical robots that can develop emotion-like behaviour

  • Estimation of the danger of robot experiments and the corresponding pausing or modifying of constraints of such experiments

  • Defining the control robots receive over money, access to public domains, access to knowledge

  • Deciding about allowing social interaction between human and robot and deciding about minimal competences of people interacting with robots

  • Deciding which results will be published

  • Deciding about whether or not to make commercial AGI products in absence of sound AGI laws

Rights and Responsibilities of the Board towards the decisions of the Ethics Board

If the Ethics Board formulates a decision that disadvantages the Board and this decision is not reasonable according to the Board, the Board can decide to ask the Ethics Board to reconsider this decision. The Ethics Board must then have another meeting to reconsider the topic.

In case the decision remains unchanged, the Board has the right to ask for advice at the “Center for Human-Compatible AI” (CHAI). If the Board receives written advice from CHAI, the Board may choose to follow this advice over the advice of the Ethics Board. There are two conditions for this, the Board needs to prove to the Ethics Board that (1) CHAI received all relevant information and (2) the advice is coming from an official affiliate of CHAI.

If the decision remains unchanged, the Board can still ignore the decision, but there is mandatory transparency in that case: both the Ethics Board and the Board will write a text and publish this on www.mauhn.com.

Confidentiality

The members of the Ethics Board will, in order to be able to execute their duties properly, get insights in the technology of the company. It is the duty of the Company’s management to provide all relevant information to the Ethics Board.

The members of the Ethics Board are bound to confidentiality agreements for a term of five years after termination of their membership of the Ethics Board. This will be elaborated on in an NDA.

Members
The Ethics Board initially counts three members. One of them represents the Board. The other two are from outside the Company and are supposed to act without any conflict of interest. They represent society. The internal member does not have any voting rights.

The Ethics Board can decide without needing approval from the Board to invite a third external member whenever it becomes appropriate. The election will happen as formulated in “Election of a new external member of the Ethics Board”.


Establishment of the Ethics Board

The Company’s management will found the Ethics Board one year after the official start of the Company at the latest, being before July 1st, 2020. Until that time the management will be responsible for choosing the members of the Ethics Board. They will choose for people with knowledge about AGI ethics and safety. Next, the company’s manager will avoid any conflict of interest and will declare any.


Period

A person can be a member of the Ethics Board for a period of maximum four years, unless the person requests an extension of the period and also receives this support by all other members of the Ethics Board and a majority of the votes of the Board.

Election of a new internal member of the Ethics Board

If the internal member of the commission leaves the Ethics Board, a new member will be elected by majority of votes of the Board who will represent the Company in the Ethics Board.

Election of a new external member of the Ethics Board

When an external member leaves the Ethics Board, a new member needs to be elected. The Ethics Board, also represented by the leaving member, will elect a new member with majority of the votes. The Ethics Board will strive towards inviting and choosing of candidates whereof it is expected that they will properly represent society without conflict of interest with the Company and has sufficient qualifications in AI safety and ethics.

Declaration of Ethical Commitment

All employees and shareholders must follow the decisions of the Ethics Board during the daily duties. These conclusions will be written in a document “Declaration of Ethical Commitment”. This document will include a number of rules regarding balance between striving for profit, development speed, safety, social (in)convenience and ethical decision making. All employees will always receive the most recent version of this text by e-mail. It is supposed that they agree with the latest version of this document in absence of any reaction.

If an affiliate refuses to follow-up on a decision, then it is the duty of this person to communicate the disagreement over written consent to the Company’s management within two weeks after receiving the update. Subsequently, the management will search for a solution together with the affiliate. If no solution is found, the case is given to the Board. The Board can, but does not need to, ask for reconsidering the update.

If the update remains unchanged, the cooperation with the affiliate will be terminated as soon as possible to conform with the laws. This may include the resignation in case of an employee or disabling the voting rights of a shareholder.

Asilomar Principles

Mauhn formally commits to comply with the Future of Life’s Asilomar Principles