Is Any AI Use Ethical?  ## Metadata - Author: [[speedofcreativity.org]] - Full Title: Is Any AI Use Ethical? - Category: #articles - Document Note: --- tags: [#AIethics, #ArtificialIntelligence, #EthicalAI, #TechEthics, #DigitalEthics] - #AIethics - #ArtificialIntelligence - #EthicalAI Author: Wesley Fryer Source: Speed of Creativity Blog Reference: https://speedofcreativity.org/2025/08/01/is-any-ai-use-ethical date created: 2025-08-02 15:30 --- # Title: 🤖 Is Any AI Use Ethical? A Critical Reflection on AI’s Moral Dimensions ## Table of Contents:  - [📝 Summary](#-📝-summary) - [📖 Main Content](#-📖-main-content) - [⚖️ The Ethical Quandary of AI](#-⚖️-the-ethical-quandary-of-ai) - [💭 Defining “Ethical Use”](#-💭-defining-ethical-use) - [🔍 Transparency, Bias, and Accountability](#-🔍-transparency-bias-and-accountability) - [🌍 Societal Impact and Human Rights](#-🌍-societal-impact-and-human-rights) - [🧩 Practical Considerations for AI Use](#-🧩-practical-considerations-for-ai-use) - [🛑 Cautionary Notes and Calls to Action](#-🛑-cautionary-notes-and-calls-to-action) - [🗒️ Notes](#-🗒️-notes) - [📖 References](#-📖-references) - [🗣️ Paraphrase](#-🗣️-paraphrase) - [📰 Newsletter](#-📰-newsletter) - [✅ Action Items](#-✅-action-items) - [🧪 Hypotheses](#-🧪-hypotheses) - [📊 Methodology](#-📊-methodology) - [❓ Questions](#-❓-questions) - [🔮 Future Research](#-🔮-future-research) - [💡 Implications](#-💡-implications) - [🧠 Learning Styles Assessment](#-🧠-learning-styles-assessment) - [📊 Accessibility Assessment](#-📊-accessibility-assessment) - [🌍 DEIB Assessment](#-🌍-deib-diversity-equity-inclusion-and-belonging-assessment) - [✅ Logical Validity](#-✅-logical-validity) - [🔍 DARVO Analysis](#-🔍-darvo-analysis) - [🔍 SEO Evaluation](#-🔍-seo-evaluation) - [🎯 Conclusion](#-🎯-conclusion) --- ## 📝 Summary: This reflective essay by Wesley Fryer probes the challenging question: *Is any use of AI truly ethical?* It explores the complexities around transparency, bias, accountability, and societal impact. The author argues that while AI has undeniable benefits, ethical deployment demands critical evaluation of power dynamics, unintended harms, and equitable human rights considerations. The piece calls for ongoing vigilance, inclusive dialogue, and proactive policy frameworks to guide AI’s role in society responsibly. --- ## 📖 Main Content: ### ⚖️ The Ethical Quandary of AI - AI’s rapid adoption raises fundamental ethical questions. - Defining “ethical AI use” requires unpacking multifaceted social, political, and technological dimensions. ### 💭 Defining “Ethical Use” - Ethical AI means respecting human dignity, privacy, and autonomy. - Challenges arise from opaque algorithms and embedded systemic biases. - The question “Is any AI use ethical?” confronts us with uncomfortable gray areas, not black and white answers. ### 🔍 Transparency, Bias, and Accountability - Transparency is essential but difficult with proprietary models. - Biases in training data can perpetuate discrimination and inequality. - Accountability structures lag behind AI’s deployment pace, raising governance concerns. ### 🌍 Societal Impact and Human Rights - AI affects labor markets, surveillance, and access to services, often unevenly. - Risk of exacerbating inequalities demands inclusion of marginalized voices in AI development and regulation. - Ethical AI must uphold universal human rights and social justice. ### 🧩 Practical Considerations for AI Use - Ethical guidelines and principles exist but need operationalization. - Developers and users must weigh benefits against potential harms contextually. - Education and awareness among stakeholders are key to fostering responsible use. ### 🛑 Cautionary Notes and Calls to Action - Uncritical enthusiasm for AI risks enabling harm. - The article urges proactive ethical reflection, cross-sector collaboration, and democratic oversight. - Concludes with an imperative to center humanity in AI evolution. --- ### 🗒️ Notes - AI’s ethical use is not a fixed concept, but evolving and context-dependent. - Transparency and bias are critical sticking points in AI ethics debates. - Accountability is currently fragmented across jurisdictions and industries. - Human rights frameworks offer a normative baseline. - Inclusive stakeholder engagement is essential to avoid widening disparities. - Calls for education and public literacy about AI implications. - Emphasizes balance between innovation benefits and ethical risks. --- ## 📖 References: - Fryer, Wesley. “Is Any AI Use Ethical?” Speed of Creativity Blog, Aug 1, 2025. - UNESCO AI Ethics Recommendations (2021) - European Commission’s AI Act proposal - Research on algorithmic bias (e.g., Buolamwini & Gebru, 2018) - IEEE Global Initiative on Ethics of Autonomous Systems --- ## 🗣️ Paraphrase: 1. *Original:* “The question ‘Is any AI use ethical?’ demands we critically examine not only the technology but the social systems that create and deploy it.” *Paraphrased:* Asking whether AI can ever be ethical means looking beyond the code itself to the societal structures shaping how it’s made and used. 2. *Original:* “Without transparency and accountability, AI risks becoming a tool that entrenches existing inequalities rather than solving problems.” *Paraphrased:* If AI operates without clear openness and responsible oversight, it may deepen social injustices instead of addressing them. --- ## 📰 Newsletter: **Exploring AI Ethics: Can AI Use Ever Be Truly Ethical?** This week, Wesley Fryer takes us on a thoughtful journey into the ethical complexities surrounding AI. As AI tools embed deeper into our lives, the questions of transparency, bias, and accountability become urgent. How do we ensure these powerful systems respect human rights and promote fairness? What responsibilities do developers, users, and policymakers hold? Fryer challenges us to reflect deeply, urging education, inclusivity, and proactive oversight to guide AI’s path responsibly. Whether you’re an educator, developer, or community leader, this piece offers critical insight into balancing AI innovation with ethical imperatives. Read more: [Is Any AI Use Ethical?](https://speedofcreativity.org/2025/08/01/is-any-ai-use-ethical) --- ## ✅ Action Items: - Integrate AI ethics topics into developer and contributor education programs. - Advocate for transparent, inclusive AI governance within open source and OSPO initiatives. - Develop community dialogues around bias, accountability, and human rights in AI applications. - Encourage incorporation of ethical reflection in AI tool design and deployment workflows. - Align open source sustainability with ethical AI principles to build trustworthy technology. --- ## 🧪 Hypotheses: - Greater transparency in AI models reduces community mistrust and increases adoption. - Inclusion of diverse stakeholder voices in AI development mitigates algorithmic bias. - Embedding ethics training in tech education improves responsible AI design decisions. --- ### 📊 Methodology: - Qualitative interviews with AI developers and impacted communities. - Surveys measuring trust and understanding of AI transparency features. - Longitudinal studies tracking bias metrics before and after inclusive development initiatives. --- ### ❓ Questions: - What practical steps can open source projects take to embed ethical AI principles? - How can communities hold AI developers accountable without stifling innovation? - What role should OSPOs play in advancing AI ethics across projects? --- ### 🔮 Future Research: - Effective models for ethical oversight in distributed open source AI projects. - Impact of AI literacy programs on ethical AI deployment in diverse user bases. - Cross-cultural studies on AI ethics perceptions and priorities. --- ### 💡 Implications: - Emphasizes urgent need for multidisciplinary cooperation in AI ethics. - Highlights importance of education and transparency to sustain ethical AI ecosystems. - Positions ethical AI as foundational to trustworthy, equitable technology advancement. --- ### 🧠 Learning Styles Assessment: - **Visual:** Mostly text-based; could benefit from flowch - Summary: …aims to empower students and educators to critically inquire into the effects of technologies on their individual and collective lives. - URL: https://www.speedofcreativity.org/2025/08/01/is-any-ai-use-ethical/ [](https://www.speedofcreativity.org/)[Moving at the Speed of Creativity by Wesley Fryer](https://www.speedofcreativity.org/) The past two days I had the opportunity to attend multiple sessions at the summer 2025 conference for [“Civics of Technology.”](https://www.civicsoftechnology.org/) It’s a grassroots organization which: > …aims to empower students and educators to critically inquire into the effects of technologies on their individual and collective lives. We conduct research, develop curriculum, and offer professional development. Our work seeks to advance democratic, ethical, and just uses of technology in schools and society. > > “About Us.” *Civics of Technology*, <https://www.civicsoftechnology.org/aboutus>. Accessed 1 Aug. 2025. > > [Day 2 – Civics of Tech 2025](https://www.flickr.com/photos/wfryer/54693262737/) ([CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en)) by [Wesley Fryer](https://www.flickr.com/people/31442459@N00/) The theme of [this year’s conference](https://www.civicsoftechnology.org/2025conference) was “Communal Resistance to Artificial Systems,” and there were some phenomenal presentations in both the keynotes and breakout sessions. Yesterday [I wrote a post sharing some of my key takeaways and new links](https://www.speedofcreativity.org/2025/07/31/civics-of-tech-2025-conference/), and I also [created a Google Doc of notes from all the sessions I attended](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1j30OnS4JPMhQonGU4zBruHXb3Gg88fPTIhSjDFgfrA0/edit?usp=sharing). I’ve titled this post, **“Is Any AI Use Ethical?”** because, in the course of the conference, I realized many of the presenters and participants in the conference are in different “ethical and pedagogical places” than I am when it comes to using AI. I shared the comments below in the Zoom chat of one of our Friday conference sessions: > It seems many of the participants and presenters in this conference are “AI is evil absolutists.” For these folks, there is no middle ground of ‘use AI to do helpful things.’ AI is viewed as a fundamentally ‘[a priori](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_priori_and_a_posteriori)’ evil and any use is unethical / immoral. I’m not on that page today, although [I certainly oppose techno-facism](https://www.resistandheal.com/what-is-techno-facism) and want to actively resist it. But it’s helpful to have my thinking challenged in many ways by this group. > > I definitely oppose techno-fascism, which is a current and strong political and economic movement in the United States today in mid-2025. I setup [the page, “What Is TechnoFascism”](https://www.resistandheal.com/what-is-techno-facism) on the [ResistAndHeal.com](http://resistandheal.com) website I started earlier this year and continue maintain, along with [an accompanying Substack](https://resistandheal.substack.com/). I acknowledge that [the “techbros of Silicon Valley”](https://www.wired.com/story/tyranny-tech-bros-silicon-valley-activism/) are colluding with our chief executive and administration to ramp up both government and corporate surveillance, and advance our pervasive culture of [“surveillance capitalism.”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surveillance_capitalism) I am not happy about these trends, and have been concerned about the rise of the surveillance state for quite awhile. In 2015 I shared the TEDx talk in Enid, Oklahoma, [“Digital Citizenship in the Surveillance State.”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqJnyI4aypw) In that talk I attempted to sound alarm bells for the rise of the surveillance culture in the USA and our need, as educators, to raise awareness and take action… But I was less sure of the specifics of actions we should take (in 2015) beyond changing personal app privacy settings, and supporting the advocacy work of groups like the [EFF](https://www.eff.org/). I have been and continue to be a [vocal advocate for “playing with media”](https://www.amazon.com/Playing-Media-simple-powerful-sharing-ebook/dp/B005EMLR88/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0) as a way to gain knowledge and skills around the uses, affordances and drawbacks of different media formats and platforms. Today, I’m an advocate of “playing with AI,” and have documented many of my own AI experiments and lessons learned on [ai.wesfryer.com](https://ai.wesfryer.com/). I am convinced AI technologies present transformative capabilities as a “cognitive force multiplier,” and have willingly drank a healthy portion of the “AI Kool-Aid” and “AI hype cycle.” I’ve said and still believe that AI represents a transformative leap forward in our shared human history of communication as well as information economy / [third wave](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Third_Wave_(Toffler_book)) work. At this point, I am not and do not want to be an “AI conscientious objector,” refusing to voluntarily use it in all contexts. I am an advocate for its ethical and beneficial uses, and plan to remain one. AI is a super-powerful technology and technological capability. It’s emergent, continuing to improve and change in dramatic ways. I frequently share the refrain, “This is the worst AI we’ll ever use,” and struggle to imagine what our world of ideas, work and culture will look like in 10 or 20 years if AI continues to improve at its current rate. As I shared in [that 2015 TEDx talk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqJnyI4aypw), however, especially as a ‘recovering school director of technology,” I’m acutely aware that the overall advance of enterprise technology tools seems to be on the side of authoritarians and those who want to exert authoritarian and fascist control over others. This is true within nation-states as well as within schools and universities. This explosion of surveillance tools and capabilities is dramatic, Orwellian, and lamentable. Today’s Civics of Tech [presentation by Ian Linkletter, “Centering Student Voices in Resisting Surveillance,”](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1j30OnS4JPMhQonGU4zBruHXb3Gg88fPTIhSjDFgfrA0/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.xtvddhnn3cs7) was the most dramatic articulation of these dynamics I’ve read, heard or watched to date. I encourage you to watch the 90 second video, [“Face Detection, Remote Testing Software & Learning At Home While Black — Amaya’s Flashlight.”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iELUtvhbukE) I encourage you to also read [resources on Ian Linkletter’s website, “Stand Against Proctorio’s SLAPP! (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation.)”](https://linkletter.org/) The use of surveillance technologies to coerce and oppress students, in consistently discriminatory ways, is both unethical and illegal. Yet it continues, and the economic incentives for edtech companies to energetically participate in this Orwellian Mardi Gras parade is sickening. Follow Ian on BlueSky at [@linkletter.org](https://bsky.app/profile/linkletter.org). His advocacy against the surveillance economy and culture is both instructive and inspiring. Some content could not be imported from the original document. [View content ↗](https://embed.bsky.app/embed/did:plc:wfn35dbu44wxf7o6wyrqzi4l/app.bsky.feed.post/3lvcztf3bqk2t?id=8865671578869027&ref_url=https%253A%252F%252Fwww.speedofcreativity.org%252F2025%252F08%252F01%252Fis-any-ai-use-ethical%252F) Today’s Civics of Tech 2025 keynote speaker, Chris Guilliard ([@Hypervisible](https://bsky.app/profile/hypervisible.bsky.social)) provided another wake-up call for me. I’m not sure if [my notes from his keynote](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1j30OnS4JPMhQonGU4zBruHXb3Gg88fPTIhSjDFgfrA0/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.f3r3yqj8nrb4) adequately capture the passion and seriousness of his ideas about surveillance technology and our moral imperative to resist these forces. We probably all know someone who is not a current user of AI technologies, for different reasons. Some are overwhelmed, some are disinterested, but **some are morally opposed to their use**. In ANY circumstance. Those are all important perceptions, beliefs, and choices to understand and respect. [The Civics of Tech 2025 conference](https://www.civicsoftechnology.org/2025conference) definitely expanded my own understanding of different perspectives on AI, and helped better prepare me for the imminent start of another school year (my 31st in education) which is sure to be full of conversations about AI, its use, abuse, and ethics. **What do you think of the idea that “all AI use is categorically immoral and unethical?”** This is an important and powerful idea to explore. Perhaps it means [as a current middle school teacher](https://lessons.wesfryer.com/), I should give my students the option to “opt out” of lesson activities which include AI use? Like social media, AI technologies invite strong opinions and divergent perspectives. Many important ideas to consider. Thanks so much, organizers, presenters, and participants in the [2025 Civics of Technology Conference](https://www.civicsoftechnology.org/2025conference)! You’ve given me a lot to think about, as well as [many new people to continue to connect to and learn with!](https://bsky.app/starter-pack/dankrutka.bsky.social/3lavzzk3hp52g) \* – AI Attribution: I did not use any AI tools to compose, write or edit this blog post. I did create the included images with ChatGPT, and edited them with Canva.com. [Is All AI Use Ethical?](https://flickr.com/photos/wfryer/54693281402/in/dateposted/) ([CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en)) by [Wesley Fryer](https://www.flickr.com/people/31442459@N00/), Is Any AI Use Ethical?, speedofcreativity.org, 01k1nvqg71n9vbesg46msc1ns0.