{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,21]],"date-time":"2026-04-21T03:31:49Z","timestamp":1776742309107,"version":"3.51.2"},"reference-count":17,"publisher":"Springer Science and Business Media LLC","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,1,9]],"date-time":"2023-01-09T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1673222400000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0"},{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,1,9]],"date-time":"2023-01-09T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1673222400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["link.springer.com"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["AI Ethics"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2024,5]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title><jats:p>Public and academic discourse about the ethics of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data science has largely focused on the algorithms and the companies deploying them. Little attention has been paid to the ethical agency of the developers. This study is the first of its kind that centers developers in the ethical environment. Semi-structured interviews with 40 developers about the ethics of being a developer revealed more than 20 themes, 3 of which are the subject of this paper: ethics in the occupational ecosystem, developer ethical agency, and the characteristics of an ethical developer. These themes reveal significant gaps between how developers perceive themselves and the reality of their work experiences. Their ethical agency is likewise variable. They have some authority to intervene for ethical reasons in systems they work on, but they\u00a0often do not realize just how many ethical decisions they make. Nonetheless, this study reveals a growing ethical wisdom in this community, one that needs to be surfaced and nurtured by engaging with developers.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1007\/s43681-022-00256-3","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,1,9]],"date-time":"2023-01-09T07:05:52Z","timestamp":1673247952000},"page":"179-188","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":33,"title":["The ethical agency of AI developers"],"prefix":"10.1007","volume":"4","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3144-9885","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Tricia A.","family":"Griffin","sequence":"first","affiliation":[]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7125-3086","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Brian Patrick","family":"Green","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3701-3780","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jos V. M.","family":"Welie","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,1,9]]},"reference":[{"key":"256_CR1","volume-title":"Employment law red flags in the use of artificial intelligence in hiring","author":"GD Friedman","year":"2020","unstructured":"Friedman, G.D., McCarthy, T.: Employment law red flags in the use of artificial intelligence in hiring. American Bar Association, Chicago (2020)"},{"key":"256_CR2","volume-title":"The secret bias hidden in mortgage-approval algorithms","author":"E Martinez","year":"2021","unstructured":"Martinez, E., Kirchner, L.: The secret bias hidden in mortgage-approval algorithms. Associated Press, New York (2021)"},{"key":"256_CR3","volume-title":"AI is sending people to jail\u2014and getting it wrong, in MIT technology review","author":"K Hao","year":"2019","unstructured":"Hao, K.: AI is sending people to jail\u2014and getting it wrong, in MIT technology review. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge (2019)"},{"issue":"7","key":"256_CR4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"4","DOI":"10.1080\/15265161.2020.1863515","volume":"21","author":"S Laacke","year":"2021","unstructured":"Laacke, S., et al.: Artificial intelligence, social media and depression. A new concept of health-related digital autonomy. Am J Bioeth 21(7), 4\u201320 (2021)","journal-title":"Am J Bioeth"},{"issue":"1","key":"256_CR5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"61","DOI":"10.1108\/JICES-12-2019-0138","volume":"19","author":"M Ryan","year":"2021","unstructured":"Ryan, M., Stahl, B.C.: Artificial intelligence ethics guidelines for developers and users: clarifying their content and normative implications. J. Inf. Commun. Ethics Soc. 19(1), 61\u201386 (2021)","journal-title":"J. Inf. Commun. Ethics Soc."},{"issue":"9","key":"256_CR6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"389","DOI":"10.1038\/s42256-019-0088-2","volume":"1","author":"A Jobin","year":"2019","unstructured":"Jobin, A., Ienca, M., Vayena, E.: The global landscape of AI ethics guidelines. Nat. Mach. Intell. 1(9), 389\u2013399 (2019)","journal-title":"Nat. Mach. Intell."},{"key":"256_CR7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"McNamara, A., Smith, J., and Murphy-Hill, E.: Does ACM\u2019s code of ethics change ethical decision making in software development? In: Proceedings of the 2018 26th ACM Joint Meeting on European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering, pp.729\u2013733. Association for Computing Machinery, Lake Buena Vista, FL, USA (2018)","DOI":"10.1145\/3236024.3264833"},{"issue":"11","key":"256_CR8","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"501","DOI":"10.1038\/s42256-019-0114-4","volume":"1","author":"B Mittelstadt","year":"2019","unstructured":"Mittelstadt, B.: Principles alone cannot guarantee ethical AI. Nat. Mach. Intell. 1(11), 501\u2013507 (2019)","journal-title":"Nat. Mach. Intell."},{"key":"256_CR9","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/s43681-022-00209-w","author":"L Munn","year":"2022","unstructured":"Munn, L.: The uselessness of AI ethics. AI Ethics (2022). https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/s43681-022-00209-w","journal-title":"AI Ethics"},{"key":"256_CR10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Veale, M., Van Kleek, M., and Binns, R.: Fairness and accountability design needs for algorithmic support in high-stakes public sector decision-making. In: Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Association for Computing Machinery (2018)","DOI":"10.1145\/3173574.3174014"},{"key":"256_CR11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Holstein, K., et al.: Improving fairness in machine learning systems: What do industry practitioners need? In: Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Association for Computing Machinery, Glasgow, Scotland (2019)","DOI":"10.1145\/3290605.3300830"},{"key":"256_CR12","unstructured":"Sanderson, C., et al.: AI Ethics principles in practice: perspectives of designers and developers. arXiv preprint (2021)"},{"issue":"1","key":"256_CR13","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"53","DOI":"10.1177\/0162243919900965","volume":"46","author":"B Miller","year":"2021","unstructured":"Miller, B.: Is technology value-neutral? Sci. Technol. Human Values 46(1), 53\u201380 (2021)","journal-title":"Sci. Technol. Human Values"},{"issue":"2","key":"256_CR14","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"193","DOI":"10.1177\/1477878513485177","volume":"11","author":"L Zagzebski","year":"2013","unstructured":"Zagzebski, L.: Moral exemplars in theory and practice. Theory Res. Educ. 11(2), 193\u2013206 (2013)","journal-title":"Theory Res. Educ."},{"key":"256_CR15","volume-title":"The psychology of everyday things","author":"DA Norman","year":"1988","unstructured":"Norman, D.A.: The psychology of everyday things. Basic books, New York (1988)"},{"key":"256_CR16","volume-title":"What things do: philosophical reflections on technology, agency, and design","author":"P-P Verbeek","year":"2021","unstructured":"Verbeek, P.-P.: What things do: philosophical reflections on technology, agency, and design. Penn State University Press, University Park (2021)"},{"key":"256_CR17","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jrp.2022.104268","volume":"100","author":"Z Liu","year":"2022","unstructured":"Liu, Z., et al.: Moral chameleons: the positive association between materialism and self-interest-triggered moral flexibility. J. Res. Pers. 100, 104268 (2022)","journal-title":"J. Res. Pers."}],"container-title":["AI and Ethics"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/content\/pdf\/10.1007\/s43681-022-00256-3.pdf","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/article\/10.1007\/s43681-022-00256-3\/fulltext.html","content-type":"text\/html","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/content\/pdf\/10.1007\/s43681-022-00256-3.pdf","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2024,5,8]],"date-time":"2024-05-08T06:02:44Z","timestamp":1715148164000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/10.1007\/s43681-022-00256-3"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2023,1,9]]},"references-count":17,"journal-issue":{"issue":"2","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2024,5]]}},"alternative-id":["256"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/s43681-022-00256-3","relation":{},"ISSN":["2730-5953","2730-5961"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2730-5953","type":"print"},{"value":"2730-5961","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2023,1,9]]},"assertion":[{"value":"2 November 2022","order":1,"name":"received","label":"Received","group":{"name":"ArticleHistory","label":"Article History"}},{"value":"20 December 2022","order":2,"name":"accepted","label":"Accepted","group":{"name":"ArticleHistory","label":"Article History"}},{"value":"9 January 2023","order":3,"name":"first_online","label":"First Online","group":{"name":"ArticleHistory","label":"Article History"}},{"order":1,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Declarations"}},{"value":"The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.","order":2,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Conflict of interest"}}]}}