AI Ethics: how can information ethics provide a framework to avoid usual conceptual pitfalls? An Overview

• Published in: AI & society Vol. 36; no. 3; pp. 757 - 766
• Main Authors: Bruneault, Frédérick, Laflamme, Andréane Sabourin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Springer London 01.09.2021; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Artificial Intelligence; Computer Science; Control; Engineering Economics; Ethics; Forecasts and trends; Information ethics; Logistics; Marketing; Mechatronics; Methodology of the Social Sciences; Open Forum; Organization; Performing Arts; Robotics; Ethics; Transhumanism; Information; Artificial intelligence; Liberalism
• ISSN: 0951-5666; 1435-5655
• DOI: 10.1007/s00146-020-01077-w

Artificial intelligence (AI) plays an important role in current discussions on information and communication technologies (ICT) and new modes of algorithmic governance. It is an unavoidable dimension of what social mediations and modes of reproduction of our information societies will be in the future. While several works in artificial intelligence ethics (AIE) address ethical issues specific to certain areas of expertise, these ethical reflections often remain confined to narrow areas of application, without considering the global ethical issues in which they are embedded. We, therefore, propose to clarify the main approaches to AIE, their philosophical assumptions and the specific characteristics of each one of them, to identify the most promising approach to develop an ethical reflection on the deployment of AI in our societies, which is the one based on information ethics as proposed by Luciano Floridi. We will identify the most important features of that approach to highlight areas that need further investigation.