ETHICS AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: HUMAN-CENTRED CONSIDERATIONS

Abstract

The age of intelligent machines and ethical disquiet is a paradox of our own making, a relentless pursuit of progress haunted by the spectres of our own creations. We galvanize artificial intelligence to tackle grand challenges, but recoil from the unemployment, surveillance, and algorithmic biases it exacerbates. The Igbo quips, how can you conjure a spirit and yet complain when it demands sacrifice? As an engineer puts it, how can you create a master tool and forbid it to master you? The tool is gaining control over the workman. The very rationalism that birthed AI [utilitarian, instrumental logic], now threatens to lock humanity in a new iron cage of its own design, leaving little room for human discretion, moral responsibility, and authentic creativity. We have sleepwalked into an age where technology dictates terms. Our purpose is to reverse the trend and get ethics resolve the tension between the drive for technological efficiency and the demands of human dignity. This paper critically constructs a human centred ethical framework that can help to navigate technological crises and the unintended consequences of innovation and to reimagine the trajectory of AI development. The future of AI holds the possibility of immense benefits, if only we rethink, take precaution, and recapture technological control before algorithmic governance becomes unstoppable. The time to eschew pure utility, practise oversight, and equity and give technology a human face is now. Wisdom must replace reckless driving the way a compass redirects aimless wandering. Amid technological disruptions, humanity needs vigilance, foresight and moral responsibility.