Year and Volume: 2024 (Vol. 54).
Author(s): Justin B. Biddle; John P. Nelson; Olajide E. Olugbade.
Abstract: Many AI development organizations advertise that they have offices of ethics that facilitate ethical AI. However, concerns have been raised that these offices are merely symbolic and do not actually promote ethics. We address the question of how we can know whether an organization is engaging in ethics washing in this way. We articulate an account of organizational power, and we argue that ethics offices that have power are not merely symbolic. Furthermore, we develop a framework for assessing whether an organization has an empowered ethics office—and, thus, is not ethics washing via a symbolic ethics office.
That’s a really important point about ethics washing – it’s easy to see how these ‘symbolic offices’ can create a false sense of responsibility. I think the design of the AI itself needs to be a key focus, too.
Thank you so much for your comment! I am conducting research on this front.