Situated ethics: Ethical accountability of local perspectives in global AI ethics

Abstract

This article investigates growing tensions between global AI ethics and local practices contributing to long-standing debates in media and communication studies on the complex relation between the human and the machine, as well as ‘the global’ and its ties to real-world contexts. We argue that seemingly universal principles such as privacy, accountability and transparency need to be scrutinised by considering the role cultural and social diversity around the globe play in the context of AI. Drawing on examples of a global qualitative study on digital ethics, we introduce the notion of ‘situated ethics’ by focussing on local contexts, concerns and lived experiences. We elaborate how supposedly universal principles are filled with varying, context-specific meanings, and argue that these situated, local perspectives deeply matter when considering how ethical AI principles can be translated into concrete AI design and policy. Strengthening more inclusive processes of AI policy-making under the consideration of situated approaches allows for a more nuanced, and more contextually relevant ethics-in-practice. To conclude, we argue that co-design and community-driven processes could help to avoid top-down approaches to digital ethics, while staying committed to universal human rights to fight power abuse and discrimination in the name of cultural values.