AI Ethics and Policy

With rapid growth and adoption of emerging technologies like AI, ethical use of such technologies become paramount. Many such ethical principles also get formally codified into law and policy. We begin this chapter by differentiating between AI and digital ethics, the key difference being that the latter tends to have broader scope than the former. We then dive into the philosophy of ethics, followed by a discussion of how AI ethics is being incorporated into policy. Several countries are used as real-world examples, but to illustrate such policies in depth, we provide two case studies. The first of these is on the influential and much-discussed General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) enacted in the European Union in the last decade. Although it is still controversial, and perhaps too early to say, whether enforcement of GDPR has been sufficiently strong or effective, the regulation has already been used to administer a number of fines and penalties on large corporations like British Airways and Marriott. The second case study is on the US-based National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). We close the chapter with a discussion of AI ethics in higher education and research.