Expectations of artificial intelligence and the performativity of ethics

Implications for communication governance

Bibliographic Data

ID5260922
AuthorsAphra Kerr (0000-0001-5445-7805, National University of Ireland, Maynooth, corresponding author), Marguerite Barry (0000-0001-5271-2673, University College Dublin), John D Kelleher (0000-0001-6462-3248, Technological University Dublin)
Year2020
Volume7
Issue1
Pages205395172091593
Publication date2020-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueBig Data & Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2053-9517 • E-ISSN: 2053-9517
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/2053951720915939
OpenAlexW3023687723
LanguageEN
Citations received42
References cited22

This article draws on the sociology of expectations to examine the construction of expectations of 'ethical AI' and considers the implications of these expectations for communication governance. We first analyse a range of public documents to identify the key actors, mechanisms and issues which structure societal expectations around artificial intelligence (AI) and an emerging discourse on ethics. We then explore expectations of AI and ethics through a survey of members of the public. Finally, we discuss the implications of our findings for the role of AI in communication governance. We find that, despite societal expectations that we can design ethical AI, and public expectations that developers and governments should share responsibility for the outcomes of AI use, there is a significant divergence between these expectations and the ways in which AI technologies are currently used and governed in large scale communication systems. We conclude that discourses of 'ethical AI' are generically performative, but to become more effective we need to acknowledge the limitations of contemporary AI and the requirement for extensive human labour to meet the challenges of communication governance. An effective ethics of AI requires domain appropriate AI tools, updated professional practices, dignified places of work and robust regulatory and accountability frameworks

Accountability · Corporate governance · Economics · Engineering ethics · Epistemology · Management · Performative utterance · Performativity · Political science · Public relations · Sociology · Ethics and Social Impacts of AI · Law · Neuroethics, Human Enhancement, Biomedical Innovations · Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment

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