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All about the human: A Buddhist take on AI ethics

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  • Chien‐Te Lin

Abstract

As AI technology becomes more influential, ethical considerations surrounding its application are becoming increasingly relevant. In this paper, I reflect on some moral questions from a Buddhist perspective and consider the moral status of AI to evaluate its function and purpose in our lives. Since a robot lacks the capacity to experience suffering and has no conscience, AI ethics are possible only as ethics about robots and not as ethics for robots. Despite having no concrete moral status, robots cannot be deemed entirely morally insignificant as they exist as moral objects toward which moral agents have a duty. Our unique endowment as human beings is the intelligence for moral deliberation as we develop AI technologies and determine the future direction of humanity. From a Buddhist point of view, there is potential to advance our spiritual growth through the realization of the interdependence between humans and AI. As we recognize the uniqueness of our humanity and take a middle‐way approach, the rise of robots need not threaten our existence but could instead catapult humanity into a new dawn.

Suggested Citation

  • Chien‐Te Lin, 2023. "All about the human: A Buddhist take on AI ethics," Business Ethics, the Environment & Responsibility, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(3), pages 1113-1122, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:buseth:v:32:y:2023:i:3:p:1113-1122
    DOI: 10.1111/beer.12547
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    1. repec:osf:osfxxx:e4jh2_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Kanai, Ryota & Fujisawa, Ippei & Tamai, Shinya & Magata, Atsushi & Yasumoto, Masahiro, 2019. "Artificial Consciousness as a Platform for Artificial General Intelligence," OSF Preprints e4jh2, Center for Open Science.
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    Cited by:

    1. Mario Tani & Valerio Muto & Gianpaolo Basile & Giulia Nevi, 2026. "A Bibliometric Analysis to Study the Evolution of Artificial Intelligence in Business Ethics," Business Ethics, the Environment & Responsibility, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 35(2), pages 655-677, April.

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