Bridging the gap: aligning developers and managers in implementing AI ethics

Concerns over the ethics of artificial intelligence (AI) are increasing. Establishing a baseline for AI ethical decision-making should include the views of managers and developers of the technology along with ethics and compliance experts in organizations. An understanding of these views provides the foundation of AI ethics principles. In practice, ethical principles are discussed but not necessarily always considered. We address this relevant gap across two studies. Study 1 explores the role of principles via manager and executive interviews and uncovers a disconnect, finding that ethical principles for AI are not as widely implemented as one might expect. To understand ways that principles can be more uniformly adopted, Study 2 surveys AI developers and provides evidence that attitudes toward technology, self-efficacy, and subjective norms affect the development of ethical AI programs. Our findings suggest AI managers need to provide leadership in communicating principles translated into rules for developers.