Ethical Management of Artificial Intelligence

• Main Authors: Alfred Benedikt Brendel, Milad Mirbabaie, Tim-Benjamin Lembcke, Lennart Hofeditz
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-02-01
• Series: Sustainability
• Subjects: artificial intelligence; ethical management; research directions
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/4/1974

With artificial intelligence (AI) becoming increasingly capable of handling highly complex tasks, many AI-enabled products and services are granted a higher autonomy of decision-making, potentially exercising diverse influences on individuals and societies. While organizations and researchers have repeatedly shown the blessings of AI for humanity, serious AI-related abuses and incidents have raised pressing ethical concerns. Consequently, researchers from different disciplines widely acknowledge an ethical discourse on AI. However, managers—eager to spark ethical considerations throughout their organizations—receive limited support on how they may establish and manage AI ethics. Although research is concerned with technological-related ethics in organizations, research on the ethical management of AI is limited. Against this background, the goals of this article are to provide a starting point for research on AI-related ethical concerns and to highlight future research opportunities. We propose an ethical management of AI (EMMA) framework, focusing on three perspectives: managerial decision making, ethical considerations, and macro- as well as micro-environmental dimensions. With the EMMA framework, we provide researchers with a starting point to address the managing the ethical aspects of AI.