Ethics Scenarios Of Artificial Intelligence For Information And Knowledge Management And Library Professionals

There is already a vast literature on ethics of Artificial Intelligence, but little (to our knowledge) specifically designed for information professionals as such. To fill this gap Andrew Cox has produced a collection of eight ethics scenarios about Artificial Intelligence (AI) relevant to those working in our sector: Ethics Scenarios Of Artificial Intelligence For Information And Knowledge Management And Library Professionals, DOI: https://doi.org/10.15131/shef.data.15147411.v1

It builds on his recent report, The impact of AI, machine learning, automation and robotics on the information professions: A report for CILIP https://www.cilip.org.uk/general/custom.asp?page=researchreport

This collection is designed to enable information professionals to:

1) better understand AI and the roles they might play

2) think through some of the ethical issues

3) weigh up how existing codes of professional ethics apply, as well as their own personal stance.

The document follows the CILIP report in defining AI inclusively to encompass familiar and unfamiliar, already achieved and futuristic scenarios. This has the benefit of prompting users to recognise continuity with more familiar ethical dilemmas, as well as to reflect on what new sorts of challenge AI poses. It also seeks to represent the issues in the widest sense by:

· Reflecting the range of AI applications, including some relatively familiar ones

· Reflecting the range of the profession (e.g. those working across health, corporate and government information services, public and academic libraries)

· Considering responsible AI as not just as applying to the development process but to its ongoing use

· Considering the wider social impacts and dependencies of data and AI technologies

· Considering whether AI technologies merely reproduce existing social inequalities or actively promote social justice.

The document consists of ethics scenarios each followed by a set of notes which are prompts to discussion. The document ends with a set of summative questions, and a very select reading list.

By being made available in CC/BY/SA licence it is made possible for users to edit them to suit a particular sector or organisational context and to update them as new concerns emerge.

The publication is part of an on-going project to refine understanding of the ethical issues for information professionals, which will be published in the future.

-Dr Andrew Cox

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