Against the Conflation of Corporate Strategy, Ethics, and the Politics of AI

Abstract

Ethics as we know it is ill equipped to resist abuse by technology companies, Van Maanen argues in a recent article. Ethics is too malleable, provides too many different theories, and allows for a plethora of ethical guidelines to be created, and ethicists purportedly end up enabling ethics shopping and ethics washing. But is ethics really the problem, and is the best solution to “repoliticise” ethics? In this commentary, I instead claim that we must distinguish between politics and ethics, as ethics has a separate and crucial role to play if we are to face the challenges related to controlling technology. This is important if we are to avoid undermining political involvement and democracy. Whilst ethicists certainly have the power to change the world, as Van Maanen argues, they are not—and should not be—provided with political authority.