A Virtue-Based Framework to Support Putting AI Ethics into Practice

Abstract

Many ethics initiatives have stipulated sets of principles and standards for good technology development in the AI sector. However, several AI ethics researchers have pointed out a lack of practical realization of these principles. Following that, AI ethics underwent a practical turn, but without deviating from the principled approach. This paper proposes a complementary to the principled approach that is based on virtue ethics. It defines four “basic AI virtues”, namely justice, honesty, responsibility and care, all of which represent specific motivational settings that constitute the very precondition for ethical decision making in the AI field. Moreover, it defines two “second-order AI virtues”, prudence and fortitude, that bolster achieving the basic virtues by helping with overcoming bounded ethicality or hidden psychological forces that can impair ethical decision making and that are hitherto disregarded in AI ethics. Lastly, the paper describes measures for successfully cultivating the mentioned virtues in organizations dealing with AI research and development.

On Current Change Trends in the Problematic Field of the Philosophy and Technology

“…Поднимается вопрос и об этике искусственного интеллекта. Можно поддержать позицию Т. Хагендорфа, который отмечает, что текущие программы этики искусственного интеллекта, содержащие нормативные этические принципы, не сопровождаются обязательными правовыми нормами и лишены механизмов подкрепления, а отклонения от этических кодексов не имеют никаких или очень незначительные последствия [24].…”

Can Digitally Transformed Work Be Virtuous?

“…Examples of practices are the healing and caring professions, whose good is the restoration of health; knowledge of excellence in these tasks requires firsthand involvement, as opposed to opinions of independent observers, and the good sought is an object of cooperation or shared good, such that the whole community benefits when each member enjoys good health. Because they involve practices, virtues are inescapably "personal," addressing both individual and relational aspects of agents (Hagendorff 2022). Caring professions, however, need to be "housed" in corresponding "institutions" as hospitals, providing necessary external resources for healing and care.…”

“…First, we adopt an actor-centric view of digital transformation, as opposed to the more common technology-centered one (Nadkarmi and Prügl 2021; den Hond and Moser 2023). Next, we carry out an explicit ethical analysis based on contemporary virtue ethics tradition (Vallor 2016; Hagendorff 2022), acknowledging principles mainly from neo-Aristotelianism (Snow 2017), Catholic social teaching (CST) (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith 1986, 72), and the works of Alasdair MacIntyre ([1981] 2007, 1988, 1990). Although we use elements from sociology (Rodríguez-Lluesma et al 2021), social psychology, organizational behavior (Trenerry et al 2021), economics (Frey and Osborne 2017; Bowles 2014; Mokyr et al 2015; Arntz et al 2016, 2017; Nedelkoska and Quintini 2018; Acemoglu and Restrepo 2018, 2020), and information and communications technology (ICT) systems (Verhoef et al 2021), they do not constitute our main vantage point.…”

Fifty Shades of ChatGPT: Aktueller Diskussions- und Forschungsstand zu Sex und künstlicher Intelligenz

“…Die Computerwissenschaft ist zuständig vor allem für die Entwicklung neuer KI-Architekturen und -Modelle, die Auswahl und Bereinigung geeigneter Trainingsdatensätze sowie das Modell-Training ( Russell und Norvig 2021 ; Sheik et al 2023 ; Vaswani et al 2017 ). Die Rechtswissenschaft liefert Beiträge zum KI-Recht ( Helberger und Diakopoulos 2023 ), die Ethik zur KI-Ethik ( Ashok et al 2022 ; Hagendorff 2022 ). In den Geisteswissenschaften geht man unter anderem der Frage nach, ob KI-generierte Texte und Bilder das Merkmal der Kreativität beanspruchen können und inwiefern sie sich von menschlich generierten Inhalten unterscheiden lassen (Bajohr, im Druck).…”

“…Generative KI und ihre Gestaltbarkeit Vaswani et al 2017). Die Rechtswissenschaft liefert Beiträge zum KI-Recht (Helberger und Diakopoulos 2023), die Ethik zur KI-Ethik (Ashok et al 2022;Hagendorff 2022). In den Geisteswissenschaften geht man unter anderem der Frage nach, ob KI-generierte Texte und Bilder das Merkmal der Kreativität beanspruchen können und inwiefern sie sich von menschlich generierten Inhalten unterscheiden lassen (Bajohr, im Druck).…”