Attributions of Ethical Responsibility by Artificial Intelligence Practitioners
Attributions of Ethical Responsibility by Artificial Intelligence Practitioners
Orr, W & Davis, J 2020, ‘Attributions of ethical responsibility by Artificial Intelligence practitioners’, Information, Communication & Society, vol. 23, no. 5, pp. 719-735.
AI and machine learning systems are integral to contemporary societies and their effects can be immense. Automated systems are incorporated into critical decision-making processes, interpersonal interactions, professional practices, and institutional infrastructures. These systems have the capacity to make life more convenient and potentially, more equitable. However, these same systems also pose threats to privacy, autonomy, safety, and health and have a troubling record of exacerbating social inequalities along intersecting axes of race, class, gender, geography, and (dis)ability. With such consequential systems at play, it is important to understand how accountability and responsibility are allocated, and to what ends. This paper draws on interviews with AI practitioners in Australia to understand ethics from the perspective of those building AI systems. We spoke with developers and engineers in a variety of fields, working under a range of institutional contexts including private firms, government organizations, freelancing, contracting, and academia.We asked practitioners who was responsible for AI and ML systems. We found that although practitioners maintain a degree of ethical responsibility, they do not shoulder the burden alone. AI practitioners feel ethically constrained by the mandates of more powerful organizational and institutional actors. They also understand that AI systems evolve and change in the hands of autonomous users. AI practitioners thus envision themselves as mediating technicians, enacting high-level plans and then relinquishing control of the products they produce. Findings highlight the complexity of ethical accountability in the field of AI. More broadly they offer a reminder that “ethics” is not a problem to be solved, but an ongoing challenge to be reconfronted, reconsidered, and continuously resolved in light of technological and social developments.