PhD Defence Tricia Ann Griffin
Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Jos V.M. Welie
Co-supervisor: Dr. Brian P. Green
Keywords: AI Ethics, Professional Ethics, Ethical Agency, Linguistics
"A Showing of Hands: Making Visible the Ethical Agency of Ai Developers"
Tricia Griffin’s thesis is all about the people behind AI, the developers, and how they deal (or don’t deal) with ethical questions. While most of the world focuses on perils and promises of AI, her research looks at the humans behind it and asks: Are we treating them as moral decision-makers or dismissing them as unfeeling tech-bros?
She interviewed 40 developers, dug into official AI ethics guidelines, and used philosophy to explore how much responsibility these tech workers actually carry. Turns out, even though developers play a huge role in shaping AI, their ethical agency remains largely invisible to themselves, the public, and those seeking to guide ethical AI.
Griffin argues it is time to stop ignoring them. Developers are moral agents doing morally relevant work. They need to take themselves seriously as moral agents, and they should have a seat at the table when we talk about the impact AI has on our ability to flourish.
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