The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence in the Era of Generative AI
Ethical issues that arise in the area of software engineering and cyber-physical systems are analyzed and the importance of rigorous ethical analysis and resulting safeguards to address the emerging issues with AI is shown.
Abstract
In the early 2020s, advances in transformer-based deep neural networks enabled the development and growth of a number of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) systems notable for accepting natural language prompts as input. These include large language model chatbots such as ChatGPT, Bard, and others. GenAI has applications across a wide range of industries, including art, writing, software development, product design, healthcare, finance, gaming, and more. In this paper, we place these recent advances in a historical, cybernetic context. We analyze ethical issues that arise in the area of software engineering and cyber-physical systems. In addition, we explore AI-based challenges in healthcare and medicine, including a number involving GenAI. This research shows the importance of rigorous ethical analysis and resulting safeguards to address the emerging issues with AI.