Does AI Raise Any Distinctive Ethical Questions

In developing codes of ethics for AI, it’s important to consider how the ethical issues concerning AI relate to other ethical issues. Some of the questions overlap with those relevant to other rapidly developing technologies, especially where those technologies involve questions about how we humans understand ourselves and our place in the world. Issues that concern both AI and other areas of science and technology include the difficulty of considering ethical issues where predictions about the future may be difficult to make; where technology is embedded in complex ways in society, the economy and culture; where the analysis and use of large amounts of data are at issue; and where complex, large systems give rise to difficult questions about the distribution and attribution of responsibility. Characteristic ethical questions regarding AI concern its typical enhancement or replacement of human agency; crucially, questions of agency are at the heart of how we understand ethics. AI, like other technologies, is often hyped up; it’s important to see through the hype to as realistic a picture as possible. Hype can distort our ethical thinking in dangerous ways, and some of the key hazards of hype regarding ethics are outlined.