Community-in-the-loop: towards pluralistic value creation in AI, or—why AI needs business ethics

Abstract

Today, due to growing computing power and the increasing availability of high-quality datasets, artificial intelligence (AI) technologies are entering many areas of our everyday life. Thereby, however, significant ethical concerns arise, including issues of fairness, privacy and human autonomy. By aggregating current concerns and criticisms, we identify five crucial shortcomings of the current debate on the ethics of AI. On the threshold of a third wave of AI ethics, we find that the field eventually fails to take sufficient account of the business context and deep societal value conflicts the use of AI systems may evoke. For even a perfectly fair AI system, regardless of its feasibility, may be ethically problematic, a too narrow focus on the ethical implications of technical systems alone seems insufficient. Therefore, we introduce a business ethics perspective based on the normative theory of contractualism and conceptualise ethical implications as conflicts between values of diverse stakeholders. We argue that such value conflicts can be resolved by an account of deliberative order ethics holding that stakeholders of an economic community deliberate the costs and benefits and agree on rules for acceptable trade-offs when AI systems are employed. This allows AI ethics to consider business practices, to recognise the role of firms, and ethical AI not being at risk to provide a competitive disadvantage or in conflict with the current functioning of economic markets. By introducing deliberative order ethics, we thus seek to do justice to the fundamental normative and political dimensions at the core of AI ethics.

Maximizing Organizational Performance: The Power of Intellectual Capital, Business Ethics, and Technological Change: Evidence from South Asian Countries

“…As technology advances, new ethical considerations are emerging [43]. The growth of automation and AI has caused worries about job loss and its consequences for workers [44]. Exploiting data analytics and machine learning also presents ethical dilemmas regarding algorithms' utilization and biases in decision-making.…”

“…It may make corporate ethics even more crucial for preserving a good reputation and enhancing organizational effectiveness [102]. Technology has increased communication speed, allowing for faster dissemination of information and greater public scrutiny of business practices [39,44]. It can make it more challenging for companies to hide immoral behavior and can increase the importance of maintaining ethical standards in order to avoid negative publicity [41].…”

Real-World Community-in-the-Loop Smart Video Surveillance -- A Case Study at a Community College

“…However, there are concerns about the potential privacy threats of such systems [7], mainly if they are implemented without community involvement or consultation. As such, the "community in the loop" concept has emerged as a critical consideration in deploying AI-driven technologies [8] such as SVS systems. Engaging with the local community and involving them in the planning and implementation of SVS systems is essential in establishing trust and acceptance of such systems [9].…”

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“…Criticality refers here to the likelihood that a particular AI solution is conflicting with the stated principles of AI governance [5]. However, some scholars have also pointed out that AI ethics failed not clarify its linkage to legal regulation and face many difficulties in terms of implementation [6].…”