Experiencing and addressing moral ambivalence when developing digital technology: Insights from Artificial Intelligence developers

Abstract

Technology developers are key to the development of digital technology. Technology development work is morally ambivalent since deciding what to do and not to do is difficult and carries complicated implications. There may be reasonable arguments for opposing courses of action. How do technology developers experience and address the moral ambivalence of their work? To answer this question, this study builds on insights on morality and digital technology development and on Bauman's perspective on morality and ambivalence. It then relies upon a qualitative study of Artificial Intelligence (AI) developers. Two rounds of semi-structured interviews (55 in 2020 and 43 in 2023) reveal how AI developers experienced moral ambivalence in their work and what they did to address it. The study illuminates distinct experiences of moral ambivalence (limited, moderate, and existential) associated with various practices (e.g., educating users, other developers, voicing concerns, or quitting one’s job). This study answers calls to consider morality in technology development by emphasizing the importance of moral ambivalence to understand how developers work. It adds to scholarship by explaining how the experiences of moral ambivalence of technology developers are diverse and can change over time and by highlighting how addressing moral ambivalence involves moral distancing, moral professionalizing, or moral personalizing.

Keywords Morality, moral ambivalence, technology developers, machine learning, qualitative research, AI.

Zoom Link: https://uni-sydney.zoom.us/j/82474690449

Biography

Emmanuelle Vaast is Professor of IS and Desautels Research Chair in Digital Technology Management at the Faculty of Management, McGill University. She is a fellow of the AIS. Her research examines how social practices emerge and change with the digital technologies and how these new practices are associated with social identity dynamics related to organizations and occupations. Her research has provided original insights on how social identities, i.e., the ways in which people define themselves and the social groups to which they belong, are affected by new technologies. It also lays out processes through which social media participate in transforming organizational and societal dynamics. Her research is mostly qualitative but she has contributed methodological innovations such as mixed-methods designs that leverage digital trace data.

Emma has published more than 40 journal articles in outlets such as MIS Quarterly, Information Systems Research, European Journal of Information Systems, Journal of Strategic Information Systems, Information and Organization, Journal of MIS, Organization Science, Organization Studies, and Academy of Management Annals. She has been a dedicated and effective Associate Editor and Senior Editor at MISQ Quarterly and Information Systems Research. She was also the Program Chair and Division Chair of the Communication, Technology and Organization Division of the Academy of Management.