The concept of “artificial integrity” proposes a critical framework for the future of AI. It emphasises the need to architect AI systems that not only align with but also enhance and sustain human values and societal norms.
Artificial integrity goes beyond traditional AI ethics. As AI ethics is the input, artificial integrity is the outcome advocating a context-specific application of ethical principles, ensuring AI's alignment with local norms and values.
Underscoring the importance of AI systems being made socially responsible, ethically accountable, and inclusive, especially of neurodiverse perspectives, the concept represents a deliberate design approach where AI systems are embedded with ethical safeguards, ensuring that they support and enhance human dignity, safety, and rights. At its heart, this new paradigm shift aims to apprehend a symbiotic relationship between AI and humanity, where technology supports human well-being and societal progress, redefining the interaction between human wit and AI's capabilities.
In this complex edifice of artificial intelligence progress, the critical challenge for leaders is to architect a future where the interplay between human insight and artificial intelligence doesn't merely add value but exponentiates it.
The question is not as simple as whether humans or AI will prevail, but how their combined forces can create a multiplicative value-added effect, without compromising or altering core human values but, on the contrary, reinforcing them with integrity.
AI operating systems intentionally designed and maintained for that purpose would be those that perform with this characteristic.
ARTIFICIAL INTEGRITY IS ABOUT SHAPING AND SUSTAINING A SAFE AI SOCIETAL FRAMEWORK
First, external to AI systems themselves, the concept of artificial integrity embodies a human commitment to establishing guardrails to build and sustain a sense of integrity in the deployment of AI technology, ensuring that as AI becomes more embedded in our lives and work, it supports the human condition rather than undermines it.
More specifically, it refers to the governance of AI systems that adhere to a set of principles that have been established for its functioning, to be intrinsically capable of prioritising and safe-guarding human life and well-being in all aspects of its operation.
This is not just about setting ethical standards, but about the cultivation of an environment where AI systems are designed to enable humans to be guided in using, deploying, and developing AI for the greater interest of us all, thus including the planet, in the most appropriate ways.
1 Thus, while AI ethics often focuses on universal ethical stances, artificial integrity emphasises adapting them to specific contexts and cultural settings, recognising that their application can vary significantly depending on the context.
This context-specific adaptation of ethical principles is crucial because it allows for the creation of AI technologies that are not only led by universal ethics but also culturally competent and respectful of important local nuances, thereby sensitive and responsive to local norms, values, and needs, enhancing their relevance, effectiveness, and acceptance in diverse cultural landscapes.
2 Differing from AI ethics, which provide the external system of moral standards that AI technologies are expected to follow, concerned with questions about right or wrong decisions, human rights, equitable benefit distribution, and harm prevention, artificial integrity is the operational manifestation of those principles. It ensures that AI behaves in a way that is consistently aligned with those ethical standards.
This approach not only embeds ethical considerations at every level of AI development and deployment but also fosters trust and reliability among users and stakeholders, ensuring that AI systems are not only technologically advanced but also driven in a manner that is socially responsible and ethically accountable.
Unlike AI ethics, which advocates for external
