Vol. 61, Iss. 4, of American Philosophical Quarterly (APQ) is the first of three special issues on the ethics of artificial intelligence, edited by Luciano Floridi, and is available to read online now.
This issue’s articles consider a capability approach to AI ethics, AI’s place in medicine and healthcare, algorithmic fairness, emotive artificial intelligence, and emotional AI experiences. Contributors include Jonas Blatter, Rodrigo Diaz, Mark Graves, Xu Hanui, Keith Raymond Harris, Patrik Hummel, Emanuele Ratti, Kyle Michael James Shuttleworth, and Jamie Webb.
“The development of artificial intelligence is moving fast. It’s moving faster than many had anticipated, and perhaps faster than ethical thinking has had time to catch up. It’s high time for some deep philosophical reflection regarding the new promises and the new perils that the new technology brings. That’s why the American Philosophical Quarterly is devoting three special issues to the ethics of AI,” says the journal’s editor, Dr. Patrick Grim.
Guest editor Luciano Floridi is the Founding Director of the Digital Ethics Center at Yale University, where he is also a Professor in the Cognitive Science program. He is also a Professor of Sociology of Culture and Communication at the University of Bologna, Department of Legal Studies. He has published over 300 papers and many books on digital ethics, the ethics of AI, the philosophy of information, and the philosophy of technology, along with other research areas. His most recent books are The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence – Principles, Challenges, and Opportunities (OUP, 2023) and The Green and The Blue – Naive Ideas to Improve Politics in the Digital Age (Wiley, 2023).
Check out a Q&A with Professor Floridi below:
Q&A
Q: Why do you feel that the ethics AI is an important topic for APQ to address, especially right now?
A: AI ethics is a crucial area of philosophical investigation. It addresses significant topics in our society that were less prominent in the past, especially autonomy, bias, explainability, fairness, privacy, responsibility, transparency, and trust. Similar topics reflect societal values and are central to ensuring that AI deployment aligns with human rights, welfare, and environmental sustainability. I welcomed the invitation to guest edit this special APQ issue because of the journal’s influential role in shaping the philosophical debate and research agenda. We need the best minds to work on this issue. I hope this special issue will attract further interest in the area.
Q: Are there particular philosophical frameworks or theories you anticipate will be most influential in shaping discussions?
A: It is hard to separate anticipation and predilection. In terms of anticipation, I think we will keep seeing the adoption of consequentialist approaches grow, often in ways that are less than critically aware of their nature, scope, and limits. It would not be my preference, but I can live with it. In terms of predilection, I prefer (and work on) an environmental approach, which is not agent-oriented (virtue ethics) or action-oriented (classic deontologism and consequentialism) but patient-oriented, since it looks at what the demands of the receivers of the moral actions are, so that they may shape the source (agents) and their behaviours (actions). The good news is that, with a bit of luck and a lot of work, different philosophical frameworks may reach the same conclusions about what is right, even if they still differ or even dissent about why.
Q: What unique aspects of AI ethics are being addressed in each issue, and how do they contribute to the broader discourse on this topic?
A: I’m afraid the list would be too long and possibly tedious, as the aspects range from autonomy and bias to transparency and trust. What unites the three issues is an ecumenical approach to philosophical styles and ways of thinking about such topics, from the very empirical to the more theoretical, and a significant presence of multidisciplinarity. In short, we look at philosophers who dialogue with technological and scientific phenomena informatively, approaching them from the privileged perspective of a normative analysis, and this is a very valuable contribution.
Q: What do you hope readers take away from these issues?
A: A lot of things: more knowledge about the debate and its main problems, a pluralistic view about alternative approaches, a more profound understanding of some crucial challenges in our society, and so forth… but if I should choose only one take away in particular, it would be the value of a philosophy that does not navel-gaze but is engaged, with other forms of knowledge and investigation, in offering answers to some of the most pressing open questions of our time.
Q: After this series of special issues, what do you see as next steps for ongoing research and discourse in AI ethics? Are there any emerging topics or questions you believe will still require further exploration?
A: The philosophical debate on the ethics of AI is growing, and I would be delighted (although also surprised) if it could lead to a revision of at least two concepts crucial in any philosophical architecture. One is that of human exceptionalism: what it is, if anything, after AI, and can it still be defended in the 21st century? The other is that of agency, understood as something that can have degrees, from the mere interaction of a river with its environment to the rich and complex case of intentional and intelligent (mindful) human agency. My own analysis of AI is in terms of Agency without Intelligence, so it is in these terms that I would like to understand the digital revolution we are undergoing much better. There is so much intellectual work to do; it is an exciting time to be a philosopher.
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