Location
Hilton Waikoloa Village, Hawaii
Event Website
https://hicss.hawaii.edu/
Start Date
7-1-2025 12:00 AM
End Date
10-1-2025 12:00 AM
Description
Technology developers are key to the development of digital technology. However, there is moral ambivalence to their work since deciding what to do and not to do is difficult. There are 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 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 how they attempted to address it. This study contributes to scholarship on morality in digital technology development by revealing how technology developers consider and deal with the moral dimensions of their work.
Recommended Citation
Vaast, Emmanuelle, "Experiencing and Addressing the Moral Ambivalence of Developing Digital Technology: Insights from Artificial Intelligence Developers" (2025). Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences 2025 (HICSS-58). 3.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/hicss-58/sj/inclusive_labor/3
Experiencing and Addressing the Moral Ambivalence of Developing Digital Technology: Insights from Artificial Intelligence Developers
Hilton Waikoloa Village, Hawaii
Technology developers are key to the development of digital technology. However, there is moral ambivalence to their work since deciding what to do and not to do is difficult. There are 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 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 how they attempted to address it. This study contributes to scholarship on morality in digital technology development by revealing how technology developers consider and deal with the moral dimensions of their work.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/hicss-58/sj/inclusive_labor/3