The Forgotten Margins of AI Ethics

This paper looks at both the historical roots and current landmark work that have shaped the field and categorize these works under three broad umbrellas: (i) those grounded in Western canonical philosophy, (ii) mathematical and statistical methods, and (iii) those emerging from critical data/algorithm/information studies.

Findings suggest that although the goals of the majority reviewed conference papers were often commendable, their consideration of the negative impacts of AI on traditionally marginalised groups was not in-depth. This indicates that the field would benefit from an increased focus on ethical analysis grounded in concrete use-cases, people’s experiences, and applications as well as from approaches that are sensitive to structural and historical power asymmetries.