Sign In

The Uselessness of Artificial Intelligence Ethics

Haebom
Luke Moon, a researcher at the Institute of Culture and Society at Western Sydney University, published a paper titled "The Uselessness of AI Ethics." In this paper, he criticizes AI ethics as being inefficient in its current state and unable to solve fundamental problems. Artificial intelligence (AI) technology is now deeply embedded across various fields in modern society, drawing increased social and institutional attention to the need for ethical use and management of AI. On the other hand, he points out that AI ethics often consists of vague rhetoric that hinders technological progress and is often practically meaningless.
The uselessness of AI ethics.pdf652.58KB

The Importance of AI Ethics

•
Impact of technology: AI affects every aspect of our daily lives, from healthcare to transportation to finance. Given this influence, it is essential to make sure that AI’s decisions and actions align with human values and justice.
•
Social responsibility: Technology companies and developers must take responsibility for the impact their AI has on society. This is important to minimize negative effects that AI can bring, such as bias or discrimination.
국내 과기부와 4차산업혁명위원회에서 발표한 인공지능 윤리기준 포스터

Problems and Alternative Approaches

According to this research, current AI ethics principles are abstract and lack practical behavioral guidelines. As AI technology advances and becomes more widely used across society, the importance of AI ethics is being highlighted even more. Luke Moon's "The Uselessness of AI Ethics" points out that present AI ethics isn't effective and fails to address fundamental problems. However, this criticism doesn't invalidate the need for AI ethics; on the contrary, it pushes us to look for more concrete and practical approaches.
Because AI technology has social, political, and economic impacts, it needs to be developed and used in ways that are in line with human values and justice. AI ethics play a crucial role in guiding the direction of technological development in harmony with human well-being. To do this, we need not merely idealistic principles but also practical guidelines and concrete policies.

Still, that doesn't mean we can just do nothing, right?

That's right. The paper is not saying that AI ethics are unnecessary, but rather points out that the discussions we have now are pretty much just words without actual effectiveness, which ends up confusing users, developers, and researchers. For example, abstract principles like human dignity or public good have different standards for each person or country, and even so-called core requirements like publicness, data management, and transparency are often impossible to uphold or just sound nice in theory. The paper warns that it's more meaningful to establish principles and ethics that are actually meaningful, rather than making promises that can't be kept right now.
I personally agree with this too. Honestly, with private companies having to take the lead in developing AI models, how far can we really push for public good, transparency, and solidarity? For-profit companies that inevitably pursue self-interest are naturally in a difficult position. And if you asked ten people on the street about human rights and human dignity, you'd probably get ten different answers. (Even though there is wording on this from the Human Rights Commission, if that were applied to AI, today's AI chatbots and agents would all have to go through a ratings board like the Game Rating Board before being released.)
Just like image and voice generation tech exploded in growth once it became open source, I personally think it's better to promote growth first, and only talk about regulation and ethics later. In reality, AI ethics now are mostly just nice-sounding words with a high chance of not meaning much in practice.
7차 교육과정을 수료하셨다면 정보통신 윤리라는 과목을 들으셨을텐데... 다 지키시나요? 사실 우리는 실패한 경험이 다수 있습니다.
Subscribe to 'haebom'
📚 Welcome to Haebom's archives.
---
I post articles related to IT 💻, economy 💰, and humanities 🎭.
If you are curious about my thoughts, perspectives or interests, please subscribe.
haebom@kakao.com
Subscribe
1
이
이주용
네티켓 10계명😂
See latest comments