Our fictionalised fears that AI is going to take over the world and replace humans, has driven much of the discussion around AI ethics. There is much talk of the need to put “the human” and “human values” at the centre when developing AI technology. But “the human” is a concept with a dark history, used to impose the values of some as “universal”, while excluding all others. At the same time, “the human” does not exist separately from technology, it is shaped by it. A richer and more inclusive understanding of “the human”, as well as an acknowledgement of our interdependence with the technology we develop, are necessary steps to developing AI that serves us all, writes Eleanor Drage.

The human: an elusive, critical term in philosophy, and an even trickier one in the multi-billion dollar market of artificial intelligence (AI). In its ‘ethical’ sub-field, the increasingly saturated and lucrative domain of ‘AI Ethics’, the conversation around what ‘the human’ is in relation to non-human others (technology, ecology, other kinds of animal life, waste) has reached a heightened pitch. It is populated by conflicting debates over “universal values”, “human values”, “human-computer interaction” and “human-AI ecosystems”. At stake is the development and design of AIs that have increasingly intimate interactions with humans: from the chatbots that help the World Food Programme collect data and the AI-powered recruitment and re-skilling tools that are reshaping the workforce, to AI’s used in care homes and that assist in medical imaging. Humans and technology have always shaped one another, but AI is unique in its ability to bring about the reality that it purports to ‘describe’, ‘identify’ or ‘predict’. This capacity has already infiltrated all areas of public and private life, with room for exponential future expansion.