揭示AI从业者设计自主系统时的三种伦理推理框架。
From Values to Frameworks: A Qualitative Study of Ethical Reasoning in Agentic AI Practitioners
- 通过结构化困境访谈,发现从业者基于三种不同框架决策。
- 客户中心、设计中心、伦理中心框架分别侧重商业、技术与社会价值。
- 适合关注AI伦理实践与系统设计的开发者和管理者阅读。
自主人工智能系统是能在极少人工干预下追求复杂目标的自治技术,正迅速成为人工智能的新前沿。尽管这类系统有望大幅提升生产力,但也带来新的伦理挑战。以往研究关注不同群体对负责任AI价值的优先排序,但对从业者在设计此类自治系统时如何权衡伦理问题仍知之甚少。本文通过围绕自主AI部署中的结构化困境开展定性访谈,研究了从业者的真实伦理推理过程。结果发现,从业者的选择不仅反映价值偏好,更遵循三种截然不同的推理框架:客户中心框架以商业利益、合法性及用户自主性为依据;设计中心框架强调技术防护措施与系统约束;伦理中心框架则优先考虑社会福祉与道德责任,超越合规要求。我们认为这些框架提供了理解伦理权衡的必要视角。因此,自主AI提供者必须超越泛化的伦理原则,主动管理这些多元推理框架在决策中的体现,以确保稳健的伦理结果。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Agentic artificial intelligence systems are autonomous technologies capable of pursuing complex goals with minimal human oversight and are rapidly emerging as the next frontier in AI. While these systems promise major gains in productivity, they also raise new ethical challenges. Prior research has examined how different populations prioritize Responsible AI values, yet little is known about how practitioners actually reason through the trade-offs inherent in designing these autonomous systems. This paper investigates the ethical reasoning of AI practitioners through qualitative interviews centered on structured dilemmas in agentic AI deployment. We find that the responses of practitioners do not merely reflect value preferences but rather align with three distinct reasoning frameworks. First is a Customer-Centric framework where choices are justified by business interests, legality, and user autonomy. Second is a Design-Centric framework emphasizing technical safeguards and system constraints. Third is an Ethics-Centric framework prioritizing social good and moral responsibility beyond compliance. We argue that these frameworks offer distinct and necessary insights for navigating ethical trade-offs. Consequently, providers of agentic AI must look beyond general principles and actively manage how these diverse reasoning frameworks are represented in their decision-making processes to ensure robust ethical outcomes.
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