This diploma thesis deals with roboethics and its associated moral and social dilemmas. The theoretical part of this thesis defines roboethics and presents the diverse opinions and approaches, deals with the position of robots in society and also subsequently examines the various problematic areas of the use of robots. The conclusion of the theoretical part of the thesis then focuses on autonomous vehicles, to which the quantitative and qualitative research parts of the thesis are devoted. The research part of this diploma thesis aims to find out the opinions on this issue of the Czech general public and Czech experts as well as to find out whether their opinions are aligned, how their opinions differ and lastly, which issues are the most important for the future development of this field.

Society and technology are advancing, in which morality is being artificially implemented into machines, often known as artificial moral agency. Along with this implementation, knowledge about the underpinnings of morality, such as the neurocognitive and ethical basis are an important matter. Human moral judgment has been speculated to be a function for survival, as it favors altruism and prosocial behavior. The neural correlates of moral judgment stem from several structures of the human brain that control cognitive and affective functions such as decision making, cognitive control, theory of mind (ToM) and empathy. In relation to these, the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) has been widely linked to moral behavior such as ToM and moral judgment. The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) has been linked to regulation of conflict and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) to remain cognitive control, which both have strong correlations to moral behavior. Damage to areas such as the vmPFC and ACC have demonstrated abnormal response to guilt, ToM, empathy, risky behavior as well as sociopathic tendencies, which emphasizes the importance of these structures for human morality. By investigating research in the fields of cognitive neuroscience, moral psychology and machine ethics, this thesis aims at seeking out the importance of cognitive neuroscience for the development of artificial moral agency and to furthermore discuss the necessity of emotions in artificial moral agents, which naturally lack the affective part of moral judgment. Lastly, this thesis will cover some of the main dilemmas with this integration and some future implications.

In connection with the development of autonomous systems supporting artificial intelligence technologies, respectively machine learning, there is a growing concern both in the public and in the media, as well as among legislators and developers. Naturally, such concerns have naturally arisen in the case of other, earlier technologies, but it is clear that there is something atypical in the case of modern technologies. The period when robots, artificial intelligence and other autonomous systems were only a sci-fi topic is already to some extent obsolete and autonomous systems in various forms have been reaching a large number of areas for several years and represent an integral element of the world around us. In practice, more and more companies are engaged in the development of autonomous systems equipped with artificial intelligence, especially the development of chatbots, autonomous vehicles or autonomous drones is nowadays a good example that the operation of similar systems is not so far from reality. In the first and subsequent second chapter, the paper deals in general with an introduction to the topic of autonomous systems with an emphasis on artificial intelligence, respectively machine learning technologies, description of society's ideas of these new technologies, basic defining features...

Machine ethics is a field of applied ethics that has grown rapidly in the last decade. Increasingly advanced autonomous robots have expanded the focus of machine ethics from issues regarding the ethical development and use of technology by humans to a focus on ethical dimensions of the machines themselves. This thesis contains two essays, both about robots in some sense, representing these different perspectives of machine ethics. The first essay, “Is it Morally Right to use UAVs in War?” concerns an example of robots today, namely the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) used in war, and the ethics surrounding the use of such robots. In this essay it is argued that UAVs might affect how the laws of war (LOW) are interpreted, and that there might be need for additional rules surrounding the use of UAVs. This represents the more traditional approach of machine ethics, focusing on the decisions of humans regarding the use of such robots. The second essay, “The Functional Morality of Robots”, concerns the robots of the future – the potential moral agency of robots. The suggestion in this essay is that robots should be considered moral agents if they can pass a moral version of the Turing Test. This represents the new focus of machine ethics: machine morality, or more precisely, machine agency. / <p>QC 20110414</p>