Ethics of AI Technologies and Organizational Roles: Who Is Accountable for the Ethical Conduct?

Abstract

<p>Artificial intelligence (AI) is recognized to have the possibility to<br />transform many fields in our society and business environment. In addition to<br />discovering the positive impacts, multidisciplinary research about ethical concerns<br />related to artificial intelligence should take place.<br />The rise of AI ethics sets new questions for management studies. New ethical<br />demands drive organizations to introduce new practices, routines, and roles. In<br />recent years the AI ethics community has focused on the principle-level work<br />resulting in manifold documentation. It is a crucial task for management studies<br />to convert these findings into organizational practices.<br />A part of management studies’ task is to answer who should take responsibility<br />for the ethical queries. Role-specific, systematic and agency-based approaches<br />offer different views on organizational roles and practices to this ethical challenge.<br />Arguing from the role-specific approach, the emerging roles of AI ethics<br />could build-up to the boundaries between programmers, designers, and compliance<br />personnel.<br />The article presents a limited interview data to support future research. The<br />interview results are compared to the theoretical background of role-theoretical<br />view of organizational roles, and the earlier literature regarding ethics management.<br />Additionally, the article discusses the three categories proposed by Wilson<br />et al. (2017) and reflects those with the theoretical insights and the interview data.<br /></p>