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Responsibility Attribution Problems In Companies: Could An Artificial Moral Advisor Solve This?

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  • Radu USZKAI
  • Cristina VOINEA
  • Toni GIBEA

Abstract

The main claim of our paper is that managers should not outsource moral decision-making to Artificial Moral Advisors (AMAs) and that such devices should not be used as a way of offloading moral responsibility for business decisions. In other words, in the wake of the rise of Artificial Intelligence advisors, Chief Ethics Officers or business ethics consultants still have an integral role to play. In the first part of our paper we provide a brief overview of various examples of unethical behavior in business, followed by some hypotheses regarding why unethical behavior seems to be inescapable. We then proceed to present how AMAs could be used for the purpose of moral enhancement and analyze whether moral decisions could be outsourced towards them. Our main argument is that such a task is doomed to fail since AMAs are not responsible for their decisions/actions. We conclude by providing a positive agenda for the use of AI in the field of business ethics, by fleshing out how AMAs could be used as moral enablers.

Suggested Citation

  • Radu USZKAI & Cristina VOINEA & Toni GIBEA, 2021. "Responsibility Attribution Problems In Companies: Could An Artificial Moral Advisor Solve This?," Proceedings of the INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT CONFERENCE, Faculty of Management, Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania, vol. 15(1), pages 951-959, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:rom:mancon:v:15:y:2021:i:1:p:951-959
    DOI: 10.24818/IMC/2021/05.12
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Thompson, Dennis F., 1980. "Moral Responsibility of Public Officials: The Problem of Many Hands," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 74(4), pages 905-916, December.
    2. Ivy Munoko & Helen L. Brown-Liburd & Miklos Vasarhelyi, 2020. "The Ethical Implications of Using Artificial Intelligence in Auditing," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 167(2), pages 209-234, November.
    3. Shripad Pendse, 2012. "Ethical Hazards: A Motive, Means, and Opportunity Approach to Curbing Corporate Unethical Behavior," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 107(3), pages 265-279, May.
    4. Bovens, Luc, 2016. "The ethics of Dieselgate," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 66926, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
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