AI and Human Ethics
“Program ethics into AI”
—this discussion is becoming prevalent in the context of AI development.
However, I want to pose a fundamental question.
Can ethics be programmed in the first place?
How is human ethics nurtured?
It does not begin with memorizing rules like “this is right, this is wrong.”
It is something nurtured little by little through the repetition of experiencing, feeling, hurting, being hurt, reflecting, and acting again.
Where do the roots of ethics lie?
As a lawyer for forty-eight years, I have witnessed the reality of human actions and responsibilities. The difference between those who can make ethical judgments and those who cannot is not the amount of knowledge they possess.
It is whether they have a accumulation of experience and reflection.
“My words hurt the other person at that time”
“That choice led someone’s circumstances in a bad direction”
—realizations from such experiences remain within oneself and influence subsequent judgments.
In the terminology of the Consciousness-Only doctrine, this process means that intentional actions (perceptions and deeds with intent) are perfumed into the Alaya-vijnana (storehouse consciousness) and accumulated as seeds.
Ethical judgment is nurtured as a accumulation of this perfuming.
“Knowing the rules” is different from “being able to act ethically”
Memorizing “this is a violation” in compliance training and being able to make ethically correct judgments in complex, real-life situations are entirely different things.
In complex reality, there are countless situations where the application of rules is not clear.
At such times, what people rely on is not the memory of rules, but a sense of judgment nurtured through experience and reflection. It is possible to program a massive number of rules into AI, such as “do this in this case.”
However, that is not ethics; it is the mechanical execution of rules. The fact that there are people who know the rules but cannot act ethically demonstrates this difference.
Zazen—as the deepening of experiential ethics
From my experience of practicing Zazen for over thirty years, I feel a deep connection between Zazen and ethics.
When I calm discursive thinking in Zazen and observe the depths of the Manas-vijnana and Alaya-vijnana, patterns of self-attachment emerge—
“Will this be to my advantage?”
“Can I gain an advantage over the other person?”
—I observe them without chasing them, and let them go.
Through repeating this practice, self-attachment gradually loosens, and sensitivity toward others opens up.
This functions as the deepening of experiential ethics.
AI has no experience. It has no sensitivity. It has no reflection. Therefore, ethics cannot grow. The task of “programming ethics into AI” makes it possible to make AI act more according to rules.
However, giving AI ethics in the original sense—the power of judgment according to the situation, nurtured through experience and reflection—is essentially difficult with current technology.
That is precisely why the ethics of the humans who use AI become even more important.
The core proposition of this installment
“Ethics is not something that can be taught through knowledge, but is nurtured through the accumulation of experience and reflection.”
Tags: #Ethics #Perfuming #Experience #Reflection #Zazen
Next: Part 42 “The Practice of Zen Meditation—To Live Daily Life More Deeply”
