Despite its successes, to date Artificial Intelligence (AI) is still characterized by a number of shortcomings with regards to different application domains and goals. These limitations are arguably both conceptual (e.g., related to underlying theoretical models, such as symbolic vs. connectionist), and operational (e.g., related to robustness and ability to generalize). Biologically inspired AI, and more specifically brain-inspired AI, promises to provide further biological aspects beyond those that are already traditionally included in AI, making it possible to assess and possibly overcome some of its present shortcomings. This article examines some conceptual, technical, and ethical issues raised by the development and use of brain-inspired AI. Against this background, the paper asks whether there is anything ethically unique about brain-inspired AI. The aim of the paper is to introduce a method that has a heuristic nature and that can be applied to identify and address the ethical issues arising from brain-inspired AI. The conclusion resulting from the application of this method is that, compared to traditional AI, brain-inspired AI raises new foundational ethical issues and some new practical ethical issues, and exacerbates some of the issues raised by traditional AI.

翻译：尽管取得了诸多成功，但迄今为止，人工智能在面向不同应用领域和目标时仍存在若干不足。这些局限性既有概念层面（例如，与符号主义与联结主义等基础理论模型相关的问题），也有操作层面（例如，与鲁棒性和泛化能力相关的问题）。生物启发式人工智能，尤其是脑启发式人工智能，有望提供超越传统人工智能已纳入的生物学特征，从而能够评估并可能克服当前的部分缺陷。本文探讨了脑启发式人工智能开发与使用所引发的概念性、技术性和伦理性问题。在此背景下，本文提出了一个核心追问：脑启发式人工智能是否具有独特的伦理属性？本文旨在引入一种具有启发式特性的方法，该方法可用于识别和应对脑启发式人工智能引发的伦理问题。运用该方法得出的结论是：相较于传统人工智能，脑启发式人工智能引发了新的基础性伦理问题与若干新的实践性伦理问题，并加剧了传统人工智能已引发的部分伦理问题。