Ethical Dilemmas In White Christmas

In the spectacular fourth episode of the second season of the hit Netflix show Black Mirror titled “White Christmas,” various topical themes and ethical dilemmas are presented that leads the viewer to question their own notions of artificial intelligence and humanity itself. The episode, which is told by the two narrators, is presented through three different stories. The first is narrated by Matt, played exquisitely by Jon Hamm, and follows a story in which he makes decisions for a lonesome young man attempting to navigate an office Christmas party. The second, also narrated by Matt, is the explanation of his real job- the creation of “cookies,” artificial intelligence that is a copy of the subconscious of a real human. The final story is

For example, the opening story of Matt making decisions for the party guests is quite similar to Descartes’ meditations on his own thinking. Descartes pondered whether he was truly thinking, or if some sort of malevolent god was putting thoughts into his head. This leads to the question of whether the partygoer was truly thinking, or if his thoughts were all being determined by Matt. However, due to him doubting the decisions made by Matt at points in the story, it could be considered that he was thinking. Another example of Cartesian thought being present within the episode is in the idea of the “cookies.” The cookies, being copies of people’s subconsciousness and depicted as thinking things that can feel things such as boredom, distress, and fear while also being affected by the concept of time, makes one believe that these cookies are real beings, all but on the physical scale. These aspects lead to numerous ethical questions within the context of artificial intelligence. However, one of the most glaring ethical questions arises through the interrogation of Joe’s cookie. Because Joe’s cookie is a copy of his subconscious, it was able to incriminate him, due to it being his actual thoughts within a digital space. This leads to a variety of insights on law and artificial intelligence, one of the most important being the use of testimonies from artificial intelligence. Would

While Descartes is able to determine that he exists and is thinking due to his doubtfulness of his thinking, an artificial intelligence might not hold the same thought. In this case, the A.I.’s creator and its code almost act as God to the A.I., leading it to make its decisions based on its code. Even if it were the most complex thinking artificial intelligence, it would still hold the implicit biases of its creator. In the same car crash argument, if the artificial intelligence were to be created by an insurance company or a car manufacturer, then that artificial intelligence could hold the thought that the driver is usually at fault, due to that being the thought that its “god” put into its head. The same could be said if it were to be a copy of the driver’s consciousness, as it might hold the thought that the driver would never be at fault for the accident. Henceforth, due to the artificial intelligence holding the bias against someone in the situation, then it would be unable to create an objective decision, rendering its testimony unusable, as it could be based on bias and not on the facts of the