# Building Ethics into Artificial Intelligence

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1812.02953 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.02953/

## Key facts

- Cited by 19 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 7 Dec 2018.

## Built on by (most cited first, 19 of 19)

- [Trustworthy AI: A Computational Perspective](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.06641/) (2021)
- [A Survey on Interpretable Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.13112/) (2021)
- [Navigating LLM Ethics: Advancements, Challenges, and Future Directions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.18841/) (2024)
- [`It is currently hodgepodge'': Examining AI/ML Practitioners' Challenges during Co-production of Responsible AI Values](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.10221/) (2023)
- [Values, Ethics, Morals? On the Use of Moral Concepts in NLP Research](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.13915/) (2023)
- [Affective Game Computing: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.14104/) (2023)
- [Modeling Moral Choices in Social Dilemmas with Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.08491/) (2023)
- [Philosophical Specification of Empathetic Ethical Artificial Intelligence](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.10715/) (2021)
- [The Ethics of AI in Games](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.07392/) (2023)
- [When Is It Acceptable to Break the Rules? Knowledge Representation of Moral Judgement Based on Empirical Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.07763/) (2022)
- [Reinforcement Learning and Machine ethics:a systematic review](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.02425/) (2024)
- [MoralityGym: A Benchmark for Evaluating Hierarchical Moral Alignment in Sequential Decision-Making Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.13372/) (2026)
- [Technology and Consciousness](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.03956/) (2022)
- [Traccia: An OpenTelemetry-Based Governance Platform for AI Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.14309/) (2026)
- [Logic-Based Ethical Planning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.00595/) (2022)
- [Towards AI-Empowered Crowdsourcing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.14676/) (2022)
- [Adaptive reinforcement learning of multi-agent ethically-aligned behaviours: the QSOM and QDSOM algorithms](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.00552/) (2023)
- [HKGAI-V1: Towards Regional Sovereign Large Language Model for Hong Kong](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.11502/) (2025)
- [Toward Virtuous Reinforcement Learning: A Critique and Roadmap](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.04246/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

As artificial intelligence (AI) systems become increasingly ubiquitous, the topic of AI governance for ethical decision-making by AI has captured public imagination. Within the AI research community, this topic remains less familiar to many researchers. In this paper, we complement existing surveys, which largely focused on the psychological, social and legal discussions of the topic, with an analysis of recent advances in technical solutions for AI governance. By reviewing publications in leading AI conferences including AAAI, AAMAS, ECAI and IJCAI, we propose a taxonomy which divides the field into four areas: 1) exploring ethical dilemmas; 2) individual ethical decision frameworks; 3) collective ethical decision frameworks; and 4) ethics in human-AI interactions. We highlight the intuitions and key techniques used in each approach, and discuss promising future research directions towards successful integration of ethical AI systems into human societies.