Table 1 Three moral categories across... | Emerald Publishing

Table 1

Three moral categories across key ethical dimensions

Dimension	Conventional disembodied AI	Embodied robot	Strongly neuro-coupled system
Artefact embodiment	Low or absent	High	Variable
Human position	External user or subject	External user, bystander or overseer	Constituent of recurrent control loop
Primary feedback pathway	Behavioural and informational	Behavioural, informational and physical	Neural/Cognitive plus behavioural or physical
Locus of agency	Human and software remain ordinarily distinguishable	Human and robot remain ordinarily distinguishable	Potentially distributed across operator, decoder and actuator
Characteristic ethical concern	Bias, opacity, surveillance and informational influence	Physical safety, bodily autonomy and kinetic influence	Intention formation, authorship and recursive dependence, alongside informational and kinetic harms
Control model	External oversight and intervention	External override and safety control	Legibility, contestability, interruptibility and self-determination within coupling

Dimension	Conventional disembodied AI	Embodied robot	Strongly neuro-coupled system
Artefact embodiment	Low or absent	High	Variable
Human position	External user or subject	External user, bystander or overseer	Constituent of recurrent control loop
Primary feedback pathway	Behavioural and informational	Behavioural, informational and physical	Neural/Cognitive plus behavioural or physical
Locus of agency	Human and software remain ordinarily distinguishable	Human and robot remain ordinarily distinguishable	Potentially distributed across operator, decoder and actuator
Characteristic ethical concern	Bias, opacity, surveillance and informational influence	Physical safety, bodily autonomy and kinetic influence	Intention formation, authorship and recursive dependence, alongside informational and kinetic harms
Control model	External oversight and intervention	External override and safety control	Legibility, contestability, interruptibility and self-determination within coupling

Note(s): The neuro-coupled column characterises the strongly coupled case; weaker degrees of coupling are distinguished in Table 2

Source(s): Author’s own work