The Impact of Market Metaphysics on information Infrastructure decisions

One of the most pressing questions that governments and societies have to answer is how to develop the infrastructure of the expected information society. In this paper I will take a look at two archetypical positions: at a state-oriented and a market-oriented view. I will recount the arguments for both sides in order to then demonstrate that all of these arguments are in fact derivatives of the older discussion about state versus market that has been with us at least since Marx. I will then try to show that these arguments are based on metaphysical assumptions about the nature of markets which are not subject to empirical investigation or other means of generally recognised clarification. The paper therefore aims to show that the debate cannot be expected to ever lead to a consensus. If this is true then we have to consider ways of structuring the debate in a way that will make the results acceptable to the affected parties without being able to rely on a shared metaphysical view of problem

Morality, Ethics, and Reflection: A Categorization of Normative IS Research

Moral views and perceptions, their ethical evaluation and justification, and practical concerns about how to incorporate them all play important roles in research and practice in the information systems discipline. This paper develops a model of normative issues ranging from moral intuition and explicit morality to ethical theory and meta-ethical reflection. After showing that this normative model is relevant to IS and that it allows an improved understanding of normative issues, the paper discusses these levels of normativity in the context of two of the most prominent normative topics in IS: Privacy and intellectual property. The paper then suggests that a more explicit understanding of the different aspects of normativity would benefit IS research. This would leverage the traditional empirical strengths of IS research and use them to develop research that is relevant beyond the boundaries of the discipline. Such broader relevance could be aimed at the reference disciplines. In particular, moral philosophy could benefit from understanding information technology and its role in organizations in more detail. It could, furthermore, inform policy makers who are increasingly called on to regulate new information technologies

E-teaching - the Economic Threat to the Ethical Legitimacy of Education?

This paper argues that e-teaching, the use of computers and information technology in teaching, can pose moral threats to the legitimacy of the educational process. One of the reasons for this is the strong relation between e-teaching and business interests. The paper will discuss this relationship and why it can be perceived as a moral threat. Briefly, the paper argues that the necessary legitimacy that education enjoys in a high degree is a result of the ethical quality of education. This ethical legitimacy depends on the impartiality of different views and on the fact that all legitimate stakeholders have equal possibilities of influencing the content and processes of education. This equality and impartiality is jeopardized when one stakeholder threatens to dominate the system. This, it is argued, is what threatens to happen when business interests take over as a result of the increasing use of e-teaching

A Critical View of the Ethical Nature of Interpretive Research: Paul Ricceur and the Other

While ethics is usually seen as a possible research subject and ethical standards have to be observed when doing IS research, there does not seem to be any direct link between ethics and specific research approaches. This paper argues that this perception is wrong and that the interpretive paradigm of IS research is directly and necessarily linked with ethics. The paper uses the theories of Paul Ricoeur to argue that both theoretical underpinnings of IS research, namely phenomenology and hermeneutics, have an ethical quality. Both rely on the concept of the other in order to interact and make sense of the world. Using Ricoeur\u27s writings, it is argued that all interaction with others requires consideration of the shared vision of the good life as well as the moral rules that will bring about cooperation and the question of how these rules can be applied prudently. Interpretive research thus has an ethical quality that should not be ignored

Researching Ethics and Morality in Information Systems: Some Guiding Questions

Research on ethical and moral issues in information systems is increasingly recognized as legitimate and important. It raises a number of problems, however, that are often difficult for IS scholars to recognize and address. This paper therefore aims to provide guidance for IS scholars interested in undertaking or evaluating ethics-related research. The guidance is given in the form of questions that should be considered in order to avoid unnecessary mistakes and duplication of efforts. The questions presented cover the concept of ethics, the level of normative engagement, the relationship to prior work within IS and adjacent disciplines, the consistency of different aspects of ethics and the justification of normative conclusions. For each question the central issues under debate are elaborated and then the relevance of the question for IS research is discussed. The set of questions provides a guiding framework that will contribute to the improvement of the quality of ethics-related research in IS

Embedding responsibility in intelligent systems: from AI ethics to responsible AI ecosystems

open access articleIntelligent systems that are capable of making autonomous decisions based on input from their environment have great potential to do good, but they also raise significant social and ethical concerns. The discourse on ethics and artificial intelligence (AI) has covered these concerns in depth and developed an array of possible ways of addressing them. This article argues that a shortcoming of this discourse is that it concentrates on specific issues and their mitigation but neglects the nature of intelligent systems as socio-technical systems of systems that are often described as ecosystems. Building on the discussion of ethics and AI, the article suggests that it would be beneficial to come to an understanding of what would constitute responsible AI ecosystems. By introducing the concept of meta-responsibility or higher-level responsibility, the article proposes characteristics that an ecosystem would have to fulfil, in order to be considered a responsible ecosystem. This perspective is theoretically interesting because it extends the current AI ethics discourse. It furthermore offers a novel perspective for researchers and developers of intelligent system and helps them reflect on the way they relate to ethical issues

Artificial Intelligence for a Better Future

This open access book proposes a novel approach to Artificial Intelligence (AI) ethics. AI offers many advantages: better and faster medical diagnoses, improved business processes and efficiency, and the automation of boring work. But undesirable and ethically problematic consequences are possible too: biases and discrimination, breaches of privacy and security, and societal distortions such as unemployment, economic exploitation and weakened democratic processes. There is even a prospect, ultimately, of super-intelligent machines replacing humans. The key question, then, is: how can we benefit from AI while addressing its ethical problems? This book presents an innovative answer to the question by presenting a different perspective on AI and its ethical consequences. Instead of looking at individual AI techniques, applications or ethical issues, we can understand AI as a system of ecosystems, consisting of numerous interdependent technologies, applications and stakeholders. Developing this idea, the book explores how AI ecosystems can be shaped to foster human flourishing. Drawing on rich empirical insights and detailed conceptual analysis, it suggests practical measures to ensure that AI is used to make the world a better place