AI Ethics: What It Is and Why It Matters

As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes increasingly important to society, experts in the field have identified a need for ethical boundaries when creating and implementing new AI tools. Although India has, to date, shied away from regulating AI, the country’s ruling authorities have been eyeing potential ethical considerations. 

The Indian Government's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) teamed up to hold the National Stakeholder Workshop on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Held in New Delhi's Taj Palace Hotel, this innovative workshop delved deeply into the fundamentals of AI and its ethical considerations. It also was the official launchpad for India's AI Readiness Assessment Methodology, which will provide a comprehensive evaluation of the country's capacities for AI and identify any regulations necessary to protect against AI's potential shortcomings.

During the workshop, the principal scientific adviser to the prime minister, Ajay Kumar Sood, noted, “As AI raises concerns on ethics and its societal implications, India aims to adopt a balanced approach to AI. India has launched several initiatives, including the India AI mission to foster the development and adoption of AI [1].” 

Likewise, Tim Curtis, the director of UNESCO’s South Asia Regional Office in New Delhi, stated, “UNESCO is advocating for inclusive, transparent, and accountable AI governance. Prioritising ethics in AI development can pave the way for a future where AI serves the common good while upholding fairness, transparency, and human dignity [1].”

This event has marked India’s emergence in the global conversation surrounding AI ethics—the moral principles companies use to guide responsible and fair development and use of AI. Continue reading to explore what ethics in AI are, why they matter, and some challenges and benefits of developing an AI code of conduct.

What are AI ethics?

AI ethics are the guiding principles that stakeholders (from engineers to government officials) use to ensure the responsible development and use of artificial intelligence technologies. It requires a safe, secure, humane, and environmentally friendly approach to AI. 

A strong AI code of ethics can include avoiding bias, ensuring the privacy of users and their data, and mitigating environmental risks. Codes of ethics in companies and government-led regulatory frameworks are two main ways to implement AI ethics. By covering global and national ethical AI issues and laying the policy groundwork for ethical AI in companies, both approaches help regulate AI technology.

More broadly, the discussion around AI ethics has progressed from centring around academic research and non-profit organisations. Today, big tech companies like IBM, Google, and Meta have assembled teams to tackle ethical issues that arise from collecting massive amounts of data. At the same time, government and intergovernmental entities have begun devising regulations and ethics policies based on academic research.

Stakeholders in AI ethics

Developing ethical AI use and development principles requires collaboration among various industries. Stakeholders must examine how social, economic, and political issues intersect with AI and determine how machines and humans coexist harmoniously.

Each actor plays an essential role in ensuring less bias and risk for AI technologies.

• Academics: Researchers and professors are responsible for developing theory-based statistics, research, and ideas that can support governments, corporations, and non-profit organisations.

• Government: Agencies and committees within a government can help facilitate AI ethics in a nation. India’s collaboration with UNESCO to promote policies supporting ethical AI development and usage is a prime example. IndiaAI, the government’s official national portal, aims to provide access to all the latest information about AI while supporting the development and promotion of ethical AI technologies and programs. 

• Intergovernmental entities: Entities like the United Nations and the World Bank are responsible for raising awareness and drafting agreements for AI ethics globally. For example, UNESCO’s 193 member states adopted the first-ever global agreement on the Ethics of AI in November 2021 to promote human rights and dignity.

• Non-profit organisations: Non-profit organisations like the Karya Foundation help increase the accessibility of AI technology across the country, even amongst those who speak marginalised languages. 

• Private companies: Executives at global tech giants like Google and Meta, as well as banking, consulting, health care, and other private sector industries that use AI technology, must create ethics teams and codes of conduct, which often set a standard for other companies to follow.

Why are AI ethics important?

AI ethics are important because AI technology is meant to augment or replace human intelligence—but when technology is designed to replicate human life, the same issues that can cloud human judgement can seep into the technology.

AI projects built on biased or inaccurate data can have harmful consequences, particularly for underrepresented or marginalised groups and individuals. Further, if developers build AI algorithms and machine learning models slowly, it can become more manageable for engineers and product managers to correct learned biases. It's easier to incorporate a code of ethics during development to mitigate future risks.

AI ethics in film and TV

Science fiction—in books, films, and television—has toyed with the notion of ethics in artificial intelligence for some time. In Spike Jonze’s 2013 film Her, a computer user falls in love with his operating system because of her seductive voice. It’s entertaining to imagine the ways in which machines could influence human lives and push the boundaries of “love,” but it also highlights the need for thoughtfulness around these developing systems.

Examples of AI ethics

It may be easiest to illustrate the ethics of artificial intelligence with real-life examples. In December 2022, the app Lensa AI used artificial intelligence to generate cool, cartoon-looking profile photos from people’s regular images. From an ethical standpoint, some people criticised the app for not giving credit or enough money to artists who created the original digital art the AI was trained on. According to India Today, many artists claimed they did not consent to LensaAI using their work [2]. 

Another example is the AI model ChatGPT, which enables users to interact with it by asking questions. ChatGPT scours the internet for data and answers with a poem, Python code, or a proposal. One ethical dilemma is that people use ChatGPT to win coding contests or write essays. It also raises similar questions to Lensa, but with text rather than images.

These are just two popular examples of AI ethics. As AI has grown in recent years, influencing nearly every industry and significantly positively impacting industries like health care, AI ethics have become even more salient. How do we ensure bias-free AI? What can be done to mitigate risks in the future? Many potential solutions exist, but stakeholders must act responsibly and collaboratively to create positive outcomes across the globe.

Ethical challenges of AI

You don’t have to look beyond real life to find challenges that illustrate the need for AI ethics and the potential downside of the technology. Check out a few examples below. 

AI and bias

If AI doesn’t collect data that accurately represents the population, its decisions might be susceptible to bias. In 2018, global company Amazon was under fire for its AI recruiting tool, which downgraded resumes that featured any mention of “women” (such as “Women’s International Business Society”) [3]. The AI tool discriminated against women and caused legal risks for the tech giant.

AI and privacy

As mentioned earlier with the Lensa AI example, AI relies on data from internet searches, social media photos and comments, online purchases, and more. While this helps to personalise the customer experience, questions surround the apparent need for valid consent for these companies to access our personal information. 

AI and the environment

Some AI models are large and require significant energy to train on data. While research continues to devise methods for energy-efficient AI, more could be done to incorporate environmental and ethical concerns into AI-related policies.

How to create more ethical AI

Creating more ethical AI requires examining the ethical implications of policy, education, and technology. Regulatory frameworks can ensure that technologies benefit society rather than harm it. Globally and here in India, governments are beginning to enforce policies for ethical AI, including how companies should deal with legal issues if bias or other harm arises. 

Anyone who encounters AI should understand the risks and potential negative impact of unethical or fake AI. The creation and dissemination of accessible resources can mitigate these types of risks.

Using technology to detect unethical behaviour in other forms of technology may seem counterintuitive. Still, AI tools can help determine whether video, audio, or text (hate speech on Facebook, for example) is fake. These tools can better and more efficiently detect unethical data sources and biases than humans.

Keep learning

India is poised to emerge as a global leader in using AI to benefit the economy and population while considering the ethical ramifications. Lund University’s Artificial Intelligence: Ethics & Societal Challenges explores AI technologies' ethical and societal impact. With topics ranging from algorithmic bias and surveillance to AI in democratic versus authoritarian regimes, this course can help you learn about AI ethics and why it matters in society.