"I Hadn't Thought About That": Creators of Human-like AI Weigh in on Ethics And Neurodivergence

TL;DR

This paper explores ethical concerns in human-like AI development, emphasizing neurodivergence, biases, and accessibility, and highlights the need for systemic changes to promote ethical and inclusive AI practices.

Contribution

It provides insights into AI creators' perspectives on neurodivergence, identifies ethical gaps, and offers recommendations for more inclusive AI development.

Findings

AI creators often overlook end-user communication norms.

Neuronormative assumptions influence AI design and ethics.

Systemic changes are needed for ethical AI research.

Abstract

Human-like AI agents such as robots and chatbots are becoming increasingly popular, but they present a variety of ethical concerns. The first concern is in how we define humanness, and how our definition impacts communities historically dehumanized by scientific research. Autistic people in particular have been dehumanized by being compared to robots, making it even more important to ensure this marginalization is not reproduced by AI that may promote neuronormative social behaviors. Second, the ubiquitous use of these agents raises concerns surrounding model biases and accessibility. In our work, we investigate the experiences of the people who build and design these technologies to gain insights into their understanding and acceptance of neurodivergence, and the challenges in making their work more accessible to users with diverse needs. Even though neurodivergent individuals are often marginalized for their unique communication styles, nearly all participants overlooked the conclusions their end-users and other AI system makers may draw about communication norms from the implementation and interpretation of humanness applied in participants' work. This highlights a major gap in their broader ethical considerations, compounded by some participants' neuronormative assumptions about the behaviors and traits that distinguish "humans" from "bots" and the replication of these assumptions in their work. We examine the impact this may have on autism inclusion in society and provide recommendations for additional systemic changes towards more ethical research directions.