The first element I write about in The Elements of AI Ethics is âAccountability Projectionâ. I explain it like this:
« The term accountability projection refers to how organisations have a tendency not only to evade moral responsibility but also to project the very real accountability that must accompany the making of products and services. Projection is borrowed from psychology and refers to how manufacturers, and those who implement AI, wish to be free from guilt and project their own weakness onto something else â in this case the tool itself.
The framing of AI appears to give manufacturers and product owners a âget-out-of-jail free cardâ by projecting blame onto the entity they have produced, as if they have no control over what they are making. Imagine buying a washing machine that shrinks all your clothes, and the manufacturer being able to evade any accountability by claiming that the washing machine has a âmind of its ownâ.
Machines arenât unethical, but the makers of machines can act unethically. »
Character.ai, a Google company, is being sued by the mother of a boy who committed suicide after engaging with a character.ai chatbot.
In their defense Google asked the case to be dismissed on grounds that the chatbot output was constitutionally protected free speech. How the probabilistic text output of an LLM could even be considered speech was not explained. The request, one of many, was rejected.
Itâs a very clear demonstration of accountability projection, and itâs happening constantly.