Artificial intelligence (AI) and robotic technologies have become nearly ubiquitous. In some ways, the developments have likely helped us, but in other ways sophisticated technologies set back our interests. Among the latter sort is what has been dubbed the ‘severance problem’—the idea that technologies sever our connection to the world, a connection which is necessary for us to flourish and live meaningful lives. I grant that the severance problem is a threat we should mitigate and I ask: how can we stave it off? In particular, the fact that some technologies exhibit behavior that is unclear to us seems to constitute a kind of severance. Building upon contemporary work on moral responsibility, I argue for a mechanism I refer to as ‘technological answerability’, namely the capacity to recognize human demands for answers and to respond accordingly. By designing select devices—such as robotic assistants and personal AI programs—for increased answerability, we see at least one way of satisfying our demands for answers and thereby retaining our connection to a world increasingly occupied by technology.

人工智能 (AI) 和机器人技术几乎无处不在。在某些方面，这些发展可能帮助了我们，但在其他方面，复杂的技术阻碍了我们的兴趣。后一类是被称为“分离问题”的问题——技术切断了我们与世界的联系，这种联系对于我们蓬勃发展和过上有意义的生活是必不可少的。我承认遣散问题是我们应该减轻的威胁，我问：我们如何才能避免它？特别是，某些技术表现出我们不清楚的行为这一事实似乎构成了一种分离。基于当代关于道德责任的工作，我主张一种我称之为“技术责任”的机制，即识别人类对答案的需求并做出相应反应的能力。