The DOI matches its Crossref record.
Moral Machines
Abstract
The human‐built environment is increasingly being populated by artificial agents that, through artificial intelligence (AI), are capable of acting autonomously. The software controlling these autonomous systems is, to‐date, “ethically blind” in the sense that the decision‐making capabilities of such systems does not involve any explicit moral reasoning. The title Moral Machines: Teaching Robots Right from Wrong refers to the need for these increasingly autonomous systems (robots and software bots) to become capable of factoring ethical and moral considerations into their decision making. The new field of inquiry directed at the development of artificial moral agents is referred to by a number of names including machine morality, machine ethics, roboethics, or artificial morality. Engineers exploring design strategies for systems sensitive to moral considerations in their choices and actions will need to determine what role ethical theory should play in defining control architectures for such systems.
Overview
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In the citing paper
“Several expert committees have been created to this end, such as the High-Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence appointed by the European Commission, the Expert Group on AI in Society of the OECD, and the Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence of the UK's House of Lords.153”
From Artificial Intelligence and Sustainable Decisions (2023) · cites this paper as [153]
Citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Items 401–500 of 719
Allen, C., & Wallach, W. (2011) · On the Horizon The International Journal of Learning Futures · doi:10.1108/10748121111179376 · Cited by 3
Self-citationHumans, Autonomous Systems, and Killing in War
Galliott, J. C. (2021) · IGI Global eBooks · doi:10.4018/978-1-7998-9029-4.ch013 · Cited by 3
Judicial Power Without Judicial Responsibility: The Case Against Robot Judges
Greco, L. (2024) · Data science, machine intelligence, and law · doi:10.1007/978-3-031-47946-5_12 · Cited by 4
Harnessing AI for Ethical Digital Consumer Behavior Analysis
Motadi, M. S. (2024) · Advances in marketing, customer relationship management, and e-services book series · doi:10.4018/979-8-3693-4453-8.ch012 · Cited by 3
The Moral Turing Test: a defense
Bøhn, E. D. (2024) · Philosophy & Technology · doi:10.1007/s13347-024-00793-1 · Cited by 7
Service Robot Morality in Customer–Robot Interactions: A Mixed-Methods Study
Kegel, M. M., Stock‐Homburg, R., & Tuunanen, T. (2024) · ACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction · doi:10.1145/3706067 · Cited by 3
“Most studies have considered the ethical implications of HRI in health and elderly care (e.g., [28, 88]) and military robotics (e.g., [137]), education (e.g., [84]), or discussed general concerns (e.g., [163]).”
Fabris, A., Dadà, S., & Grande, E. (2024) · Human perspectives in health sciences and technology · doi:10.1007/978-3-031-76961-0_2 · Cited by 3
Lucas, G. R., Jr. (2014) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-90-481-9707-1_97 · Cited by 3
Institutional Facts and AMAs in Society
Gokmen, A. (2018) · Studies in applied philosophy, epistemology and rational ethics · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-96448-5_26 · Cited by 3
A Framework for Grounding the Moral Status of Intelligent Machines
Scheessele, M. R. (2018) · Proceedings of the AAAI/ACM Conference on AI Ethics and Society · doi:10.1145/3278721.3278743 · Cited by 3
Re-imagining Current AI Ethics Policy Debates: A View from the Ethics of Technology
Ruttkamp, E. (2022) · Communications in computer and information science · doi:10.1007/978-3-030-95070-5_21 · Cited by 4
Yang, J. H., Kim, J. S., & Chung, C. C. (2022) · International Conference on Control, Automation and Systems (ICCAS) · doi:10.23919/iccas55662.2022.10003714 · Cited by 4
“Several methodologies exist for conducting moral decisions to resolve the aforementioned social dilemma: 1) a principle-based approach and 2) a learning-based approach [9].”
Corporate and Artificial Moral Agency
Singer, A. E. (2013) · Proceedings of the ... Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences/Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences · doi:10.1109/hicss.2013.149 · Cited by 3
A Moral Judgment System using Evaluation Expressions
Yamamoto, M., & Hagiwara, M. (2015) · Transactions of Japan Society of Kansei Engineering · doi:10.5057/jjske.tjske-d-15-00026 · Cited by 3
Dantas, C., Balhau, P., Jegundo, A., Santos, L., Christophorou, C., Wings, C., Quintas, J. M., & Christodoulou, E. (2017) · Advances in intelligent systems and computing · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-56538-5_76 · Cited by 3
Pour une éthique de la mimesis à l'époque des technologies numériques
Fabris, A. (2017) · Sens public · doi:10.7202/1048854ar · Cited by 3
Towards Ethics in Robotic Cities
Sindi, Y. H. O., Ascencio, R. R. L., & Emes, M. R. (2018) · doi:10.1109/gciot.2018.8620161 · Cited by 3
Would Moral Machines Close the Responsibility Gap?
Remmers, P. (2020) · Techno:Phil · doi:10.1007/978-3-476-04896-7_10 · Cited by 4
Can Aristotelian virtue theory survive Fourth Order Technology? An ethics perspective
Doherty, L. (2021) · South African Journal of Philosophy · doi:10.1080/02580136.2021.1941652 · Cited by 3
“Indeed, at best, according to Wallach and Allen (2009), they can only become artificial moral agents (AMA).”
BackgroundWhat Is it Like to be a Bot? SF and the Morality of Intelligent Machines
Hauskeller, M. (2021) · Science and fiction · doi:10.1007/978-3-030-64269-3_2 · Cited by 4
Maschinenethik und Philosophie
Misselhorn, C. (2018) · Springer Reference Geisteswissenschaften · doi:10.1007/978-3-658-17484-2_3-1 · Cited by 3
Pagallo, U. (2013) · Law, governance and technology series · doi:10.1007/978-94-007-6564-1_5 · Cited by 3
Maschinenethik und Philosophie
Misselhorn, C. (2020) · Springer Reference Geisteswissenschaften · doi:10.1007/978-3-658-17484-2_3-2 · Cited by 3
From Logic Programming to Machine Ethics
Saptawijaya, A., & Pereira, L. M. (2018) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-658-17484-2_14-1 · Cited by 3
Not Quite Like Us? — Can Cyborgs and Intelligent Machines Be Natural Persons as a Matter of Law?Preprint
Gervais, D. J. (2023) · Qeios · doi:10.32388/9wpmg4 · Cited by 3
Schroth, J. (2025) · doi:10.1002/9781394238651.ch12 · Cited by 3
Karimov, F. E., & Saidolimov, S. (2024) · International Conference on Advance Computing and Innovative Technologies in Engineering (ICACITE) · doi:10.1109/icacite60783.2024.10616762 · Cited by 2
Socratic Dialogue with Generative Artificial Intelligence: Where is the Future?
Leoste, J., Fenyvesi, K., & Rosario, G. D. (2025) · Lecture notes in networks and systems · doi:10.1007/978-3-031-84457-7_20 · Cited by 4
Artificial Intelligence: Approaches to Safety
D’Alessandro, W., & Kirk‐Giannini, C. D. (2025) · Philosophy Compass · doi:10.1111/phc3.70039 · Cited by 4
Following the Light of the Sun: Humanity in the New (Work) World of AI
Wigger, L. (2025) · Journal of Economic Issues · doi:10.1080/00213624.2025.2535932 · Cited by 2
Between Man and Machine: Unveiling the Incomplete Moral Agency of Virtual Digital Humans
Xin, J., Ding, X.-J., Xie, C., & Yu, F. (2025) · Topoi · doi:10.1007/s11245-025-10309-x · Cited by 2
A systematic review of moral agency in artificial agents
Tok, A. Y. F., Powell, N. L., & Guellaï, B. (2025) · Discover Psychology · doi:10.1007/s44202-025-00537-y · Cited by 3
Trappl, R. (2015) · Cognitive technologies · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-21548-8_1 · Cited by 3
Smart soldiers: towards a more ethical warfare
Omotoyinbo, F. R. (2022) · AI & Society · doi:10.1007/s00146-022-01385-3 · Cited by 7
Animal Rights and Robot Ethics
Hagendorff, T. (2019) · IGI Global eBooks · doi:10.4018/978-1-7998-1754-3.ch087 · Cited by 2
Human-Robot Dialogue that Elicits The Alignment of Moral Principles For Driverless Vehicles
Angelopoulos, G., & Estivill‐Castro, V. (2024) · ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) · doi:10.1145/3610978.3640641 · Cited by 2
Dülger, K., & Sökük, Ö. T. (2024) · Anadolu Üniversitesi Hukuk Fakültesi Dergisi · doi:10.54699/andhd.1386667 · Cited by 2
Human-Technology Symbiosis in Service: Insights from Dual-Process Theory
Findsrud, R., & Tronvoll, B. (2024) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-031-66528-8_7 · Cited by 2
Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare: Balancing Innovation, Ethics, and Human Rights Protection
Correia, P. M. A. R., Pedro, R. L. D., & Videira, S. A. (2025) · Journal of Digital Technologies and Law · doi:10.21202/jdtl.2025.7 · Cited by 5
Enhancing Military C4I-SR Through Integrating AI for Optimized Combat Effectiveness
Munir, M., Mantoro, T., & Ayu, M. A. (2024) · IEEE International Conference on Computing, Engineering and Design (ICCED) · doi:10.1109/icced64257.2024.10983638 · Cited by 3
The moral case for using language model agents for recommendation
Lazar, S., Thorburn, L., Tian, J. W., & Belli, L. (2025) · Inquiry · doi:10.1080/0020174x.2025.2515579 · Cited by 5
“Sociality and Normativity for Robots”: An Introduction
Hakli, R., & Seibt, J. (2017) · Studies in the philosophy of sociality · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-53133-5_1 · Cited by 2
The Rise of Artificial Intelligence
Niewiadomski, R., & Anderson, D. M. (2019) · Natural Language Processing · doi:10.4018/978-1-7998-0951-7.ch063 · Cited by 2
Roboethics and Telerobotic Weapons Systems
Sullins, J. P. (2013) · Philosophy of engineering and technology · doi:10.1007/978-94-007-7762-0_18 · Cited by 2
Dator, J. A. (2012) · SpringerBriefs in space development · doi:10.1007/978-1-4614-3094-0_8 · Cited by 2
Roboethics: A Branch of Applied Ethics
Tzafestaş, S. G. (2015) · International series on intelligent systems, control and automation: science and engineering · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-21714-7_5 · Cited by 2
Galliott, J. C. (2015) · Advances in computational intelligence and robotics book series · doi:10.4018/978-1-4666-7278-9.ch019 · Cited by 2
A Moral Judgment System Using an Automatic Created Moral Corpus
Yamamoto, M., & Hagiwara, M. (2016) · Joint International Conference on Soft Computing and Intelligent Systems and International Symposium on Advanced Intelligent Systems (SCIS&ISIS) · doi:10.1109/scis-isis.2016.0134 · Cited by 3
Technikethik: Verantwortung für technische Produkte – „Ex Machina“
Heesen, J., & Sehr, M. (2018) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-658-20391-7_11 · Cited by 2
AI recognition of differences among book-length texts
DeCanio, S. J. (2018) · AI & Society · doi:10.1007/s00146-018-0851-7 · Cited by 2
“Wallach and Allen (2009) 7 The problem of moral disagreement is starkly posed by MacIntyre (1984).”
BackgroundBendel, O. (2019) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-658-17483-5_24 · Cited by 2
Two New Philosophical Problems for Robo-Ethics
Buechner, J. (2018) · Information · doi:10.3390/info9100256 · Cited by 2
“Anderson and Anderson [29,30] have developed code for moral reasoning based on Ross’s deontological framework of “prima facie duties” (for an extended discussion/analysis of functional morality as it relates to frameworks found in Anderson and Anderson [29,30], as well as in Wallach and Allen [26], see Tavani [31]).”
BackgroundInfluentialSemantic Analysis of Bloggers Experiences as a Knowledge Source of Average Human Morality
Rzepka, R., & Araki, K. (2015) · Advances in human and social aspects of technology book series · doi:10.4018/978-1-4666-8592-5.ch005 · Cited by 2
Artificial Intelligence and Social Responsibility
Krkač, K., & Bračević, I. (2021) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-030-42465-7_41 · Cited by 2
Can an AI learn political theory?
DeCanio, S. J. (2020) · AI Perspectives · doi:10.1186/s42467-020-00007-2 · Cited by 2
Can Lethal Autonomous Robots Learn Ethics?
Narayanan, A. (2020) · Lecture notes in computer science · doi:10.1007/978-3-030-64984-5_18 · Cited by 2
Bøhn, E. D. (2021) · Science and fiction · doi:10.1007/978-3-030-64269-3_3 · Cited by 2
Klara ile Güneş: Dijitalleşen Bir Çağda İnsan Olmak
GÜROVA, E. (2021) · Kültür Araştırmaları Dergisi · doi:10.46250/kulturder.954559 · Cited by 2
Bendel, O. (2019) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-658-17483-5_1 · Cited by 2
Coeckelbergh, M. (2014) · Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks · doi:10.1057/9781137333544_3 · Cited by 2
Decker, M. (2021) · J.B. Metzler eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-476-04901-8_75 · Cited by 2
Automated Driving Without Ethics: Meaning, Design and Real-World Implementation
Evans, K., de Moura, N., Chauvier, S., & Chatila, R. (2023) · Studies in applied philosophy, epistemology and rational ethics · doi:10.1007/978-3-031-39991-6_7 · Cited by 2
Is There a Need for Robots with Moral Agency? A Case Study in Social Robotics
Raper, R. (2024) · IEEE International Conference on Industrial Technology (ICIT) · doi:10.1109/icit58233.2024.10540919 · Cited by 2
“Moral Agency in machines is something that is considered extensively by Wallach and Allen [10], who highlight a scale of different levels of Moral Agency in machines.”
BackgroundRobot Ethics for Interaction with Humanoid, AI-Enabled, and Expressive Robots
Barfield, J. K. (2024) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781009386708.025 · Cited by 2
Introductory Concepts and Outline of the Book
Tzafestaş, S. G. (2015) · International series on intelligent systems, control and automation: science and engineering · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-21714-7_1 · Cited by 2
Yamamoto, M., & Hagiwara, M. (2018) · International Journal of Affective Engineering · doi:10.5057/ijae.ijae-d-17-00011 · Cited by 2
“Wallach et al. [14] have introduced a hybrid model combining a posteriori and a deductive model.”
Wewer, G. (2020) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-658-23668-7_20 · Cited by 2
Sexroboter aus Sicht der Maschinenethik
Bendel, O. (2018) · Springer Reference Geisteswissenschaften · doi:10.1007/978-3-658-17484-2_22-1 · Cited by 2
Artificial Intelligence and Social Responsibility
Krkač, K., & Bračević, I. (2020) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-030-22438-7_41-1 · Cited by 2
Guzhva, O., & Siegford, J. M. (2022) · Wageningen Academic Publishers eBooks · doi:10.3920/978-90-8686-934-3_21 · Cited by 2
Meneguetti, L. (2025) · SSRN Electronic Journal · doi:10.2139/ssrn.5359499 · Cited by 2
Design Justice for Robot Design and Policy Making
Ostrowski, A. K., & Breazeal, C. (2022) · 2022 17th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) · doi:10.1109/hri53351.2022.9889557 · Cited by 3
CHRISTIANITY, SCIENCE, AND THREE PHASES OF BEING HUMAN
Reichenbach, B. R. (2020) · Zygon® · doi:10.1111/zygo.12665 · Cited by 1
Decker, M. (2022) · Soziologische Revue · doi:10.1515/srsr-2022-0026 · Cited by 1
Nakazono, N. (2023) · IFIP advances in information and communication technology · doi:10.1007/978-3-031-43393-1_7 · Cited by 1
Value alignment, human enhancement, and moral revolutions
Tubert, A., & Tiehen, J. (2023) · Inquiry · doi:10.1080/0020174x.2023.2261506 · Cited by 2
“46 Wallach and Allen (2009, 79). you let it learn the values that will guide it by relying on more general learning capacities, including for instance supervised learning, unsupervised learning, reinforcement learning, and more.”
Kwik, J. (2024) · T.M.C. Asser Press eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-94-6265-631-4_10 · Cited by 1
Clues and caveats concerning artificial consciousness from a phenomenological perspective
Beavers, A. F., & McGraw, E. B. (2024) · Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences · doi:10.1007/s11097-024-10033-8 · Cited by 1
Profound discontinuities: between humans and machines in the warfighting context
Guha, M. (2024) · Defence Studies · doi:10.1080/14702436.2024.2430247 · Cited by 1
Artificial Intelligence and Inequality: A Legal Aspect
Rybin, A. I., & Chashhukhin, E. O. (2025) · Theoretical and Applied Law · doi:10.22394/3034-2813-2024-4-56-67 · Cited by 1
Lauwaert, L., & Chomanski, B. (2025) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-031-77174-3_1 · Cited by 1
Modelling Moral Decision-Making in a Contractualist Artificial Agent
Dalmasso, G., Vidal, L. M., & Pretus, C. (2025) · Lecture notes in computer science · doi:10.1007/978-3-031-85463-7_10 · Cited by 1
Benn, C. (2025) · Philosophy & Technology · doi:10.1007/s13347-025-00865-w · Cited by 2
“There has been an ever-increasing call to design these artificial agents to be sensitive to ethical concerns (Liao, 2020; Wallach & Asaro, 2020; Arnold et al., 2017; Talbot et al., 2017; Wallach & Allen, 2009).”
Raising Skynet: Moral Status of AI and Perspectives of Teaching Ethics to AI
Blagojević, B. (2025) · AM Journal of Art and Media Studies · doi:10.25038/am.v0i28.616 · Cited by 1
Role-Based Ethics for Decision-Maker Alignment
Rauch, C. B., Molineaux, M., Mainali, M., et al. (2025) · IEEE Conference on Artificial Intelligence (CAI) · doi:10.1109/cai64502.2025.00209 · Cited by 1
279Agents and Persons? AI Systems Acting in the World and the Limits of Legal Personality
Chesterman, S. A. (2025) · De Gruyter eBooks · doi:10.1515/9783111346632-014 · Cited by 1
Value-aligned but misguided: a dilemma in AI and AGI decision making
Song, Z. (2025) · Synthese · doi:10.1007/s11229-025-05232-y · Cited by 1
“In contrast, top-down approaches adopt a prescriptive methodology, explicitly defining ethical principles or safety rules and translating them into computational frameworks (Wallach & Allen, 2009).”
Beyond the Responsibility Gap: Distributed Non-anthropocentric Responsibility in the AI Era
Noh, H. (2025) · Topoi · doi:10.1007/s11245-025-10302-4 · Cited by 5
Ethics by Design: Integrating Moral Frameworks in the Digital Age
Kumar, D., Choudhary, A., Kundan, & Kumar, A. (2025) · IEEE International Conference on Contemporary Computing and Communications (InC4) · doi:10.1109/inc465408.2025.11256430 · Cited by 2
Individual ethics and dispositions in the digital world
Donati, D., Gozzano, S., Inverardi, P., & Troquard, N. (2026) · AI & Society · doi:10.1007/s00146-026-02888-z · Cited by 1
“In this work, we are not directly interested in universal machine ethics (Wallach and Allen 2009).”
Bareis, J., Ackerl, C., & Heil, R. (2026) · AI and Ethics · doi:10.1007/s43681-025-00928-w · Cited by 7
In defense of artificial suffering
Mamak, K. (2026) · Philosophical Studies · doi:10.1007/s11098-026-02493-2 · Cited by 1
Inherent causal indeterminacy: on causal responsibility of AI-based care robots
Kropf, M. (2026) · AI and Ethics · doi:10.1007/s43681-026-01073-8 · Cited by 1
Christian ethical reflections on artificial intelligence and its social implications
Kurniawan, Y. (2026) · Multidisciplinary Science Journal · doi:10.31893/multiscience.2026664 · Cited by 2
Kaya, M. (2026) · Kamu Yönetimi ve Teknoloji Dergisi · doi:10.58307/kaytek.1967200 · Cited by 1
The Axiology of AI Agents: How Human-AI Interaction Transforms Values from Espoused to Enacted
Glaser, V., Sloan, J., Valadão, R., & Micelotta, E. R. (2026) · Academy of Management Review · doi:10.5465/amr.2024.0494 · Cited by 2
Implementation Fundamentals for Ethical Medical Agents
Waser, M. R. (2014) · International series on intelligent systems, control and automation: science and engineering · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-08108-3_4 · Cited by 1
Singer, A. E. (2011) · Proceedings of the ... Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences/Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences · doi:10.1109/hicss.2011.367 · Cited by 1
“For example, Genghis is an insect-like robot (also described in [24]).”
BackgroundInfluentialAccelerating Economic Inequality and the Moral Responsibilities of Corporate-Employed Technologists
Singer, A. E. (2014) · Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS) · doi:10.1109/hicss.2014.550 · Cited by 1
Bendel, O. (2018) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-662-57765-3_3 · Cited by 1
Metadata
- Authors
- Wallach, W., & Allen, C.
- Venue
- Oxford University Press
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press
- Published
- 2009-02-01
- OpenAlex
- W4247462173
- Cited by
- 711
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 70 · 2025: 60 · 2024: 99 · 2023: 47 · 2022: 48 · 2021: 56 · 2020: 47 · 2019: 52 · 2018: 58 · 2017: 34 · 2016: 24 · 2015: 23 · 2014: 27 · 2013: 17 · 2012: 14
- FWCI
- 22.38
- Type
- book
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Oxford University Press eBooks (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Artificial Intelligence › Ethics and Social Impacts of AI
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Philosophy › Philosophical Ethics and Theory
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Ethics in Business and Education
- Keywords
- machine ethics, artificial morality, robot ethics, autonomous systems, ethical decision-making, control architecture, moral theory, robots, bots
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
