Experiencing and Addressing the Moral Ambivalence of Developing Digital Technology: Insights from Artificial Intelligence Developers

Date

2025-01-07

Contributor

Advisor

Department

Instructor

Depositor

Speaker

Researcher

Consultant

Interviewer

Narrator

Transcriber

Annotator

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Volume

Number/Issue

Starting Page

6580

Ending Page

Alternative Title

Abstract

Technology developers are key to the development of digital technology. However, there is moral ambivalence to their work since deciding what to do and not to do is difficult. There are reasonable arguments for opposing courses of action. How do technology developers experience and address the moral ambivalence of their work? To answer this question, this study builds on insights on morality and digital technology and on Bauman's perspective on morality and ambivalence. It then relies upon a qualitative study of Artificial Intelligence (AI) developers. Two rounds of semi-structured interviews (55 in 2020 and 43 in 2023) reveal how AI developers experienced moral ambivalence in their work and how they attempted to address it. This study contributes to scholarship on morality in digital technology development by revealing how technology developers consider and deal with the moral dimensions of their work.

Description

Keywords

Changing Nature of Work – More Inclusive Labor Markets and Work Practices through Digital Transformation, machine learning, moral ambivalence, morality, qualitative research., technology developers

Citation

Extent

10

Format

Geographic Location

Time Period

Related To

Proceedings of the 58th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences

Related To (URI)

Table of Contents

Rights

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

Rights Holder

Local Contexts

Email libraryada-l@lists.hawaii.edu if you need this content in ADA-compliant format.