Hidden Agents, Explicit Obligations: A Linguistic Analysis of AI Ethics Guidelines.
Since 2013, many organizations, governments, and coalitions have issued ethics guidelines aimed at achieving ethically sound artificial intelligence (AI). The literature evaluating these guidelines has so far focused more on what is in them (e.g., principles) than on who is expected to enact them (e...
| Publicado en: | Science & Engineering Ethics Vol. 31; no. 6; pp. 1 - 23 |
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| Autores principales: | , , , |
| Formato: | Artículo |
| Publicado: |
Springer Nature
Dec2025
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| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=188950864&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 188950864 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 13533452 GNI jtl: Science & Engineering Ethics issn: 13533452 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Dec2025 vid: 31 iid: 6 pid: 237 pub: Springer Nature artinfo: ui: 188950864 10.1007/s11948-025-00559-8 ppf: 1 ppct: 22 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 1.5MB tig: atl: Hidden Agents, Explicit Obligations: A Linguistic Analysis of AI Ethics Guidelines. aug: au: Griffin, Tricia A. Goorman, Roos Green, Brian P. Welie, Jos V. M. affil: https://ror.org/02jz4aj89 Faculty of Science and Engineering, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands University College Maastricht, Zwingelput 4, 6211 KH, Maastricht, The Netherlands https://ror.org/03ypqe447 Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA, USA St. André International Center for Ethics and Integrity, Saint André d'Olérargues, France su: Moral agent (Philosophy) Computer software developers Ethics Linguistics Transitivity (Grammar) Artificial intelligence & ethics Normativity (Ethics) Change agents Standards Communication ethics sug: subj: Moral agent (Philosophy) Computer software developers Ethics Linguistics Transitivity (Grammar) Artificial intelligence & ethics Normativity (Ethics) Change agents Standards Communication ethics keyword: AI ethics Business ethics Ethical agency Ethics codes Ethics guidelines Moral agency Philosophy and Religious Studies Philosophy Writing ethics codes ab: Since 2013, many organizations, governments, and coalitions have issued ethics guidelines aimed at achieving ethically sound artificial intelligence (AI). The literature evaluating these guidelines has so far focused more on what is in them (e.g., principles) than on who is expected to enact them (e.g., developers). We argue that ethical agency in AI Ethics guidelines has been under-scrutinized in the literature, and we seek here to fill that gap. This study relies on transitivity analysis to evaluate 87 operational ethics guidelines for the representation of moral agents and their agency. We identified normative key words, their linguistic function, and agency attribution in 6,935 statements. Our findings reveal 11 distinct agents, with deployers, developers, and AI systems being the most frequently invoked. However, the ethical agency attributed to developers and deployers was overwhelmingly implied, while the tasks assigned to them were more often normative than descriptive. That the agency of the two most powerful agents in AI development is so often hidden in ethics guidelines reveals that the challenges associated with implementing AI ethics guidelines does not stem merely from the "principles to practice" problem, but from a more deeply rooted issue regarding how guideline authors conceive of ethical agency. We evaluate the findings through the dual lenses of agent backgrounding and agent suppression and conclude with advice for authors of ethics guidelines. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Science & Engineering Ethics is a copyright of Springer, 2025. All Rights Reserved. item: Science & Engineering Ethics holder: Springer Nature dt: @attributes: year: 2025 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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