Moral Entrepreneurship and the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence in Digital Psychiatry

Abstract

Researchers who use artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning tools face pressure to pursue “ethical AI,” yet little is known about how researchers enact ethical standards in practice. The author investigates the development of AI ethics using the case of digital psychiatry, a field that uses machine learning to study mental illness and provide mental health care. Drawing on ethnographic research and interviews, the author analyzes how digital psychiatry researchers become “moral entrepreneurs,” actors who wield their social influence to define ethical conduct, through two practices. First, researchers engage in moral discovery, identifying gaps in regulation as opportunities to articulate ethical standards. Second, researchers engage in moral enclosure, specifying a community of people licensed to do moral regulation. With these techniques, digital psychiatry researchers demonstrate ethical innovation is essential to their professional identity. Yet ultimately, the author demonstrates how moral entrepreneurship erects barriers to participation in ethical decision making and constrains the focus of ethical consideration.