Book review: Handbook on the Ethics of AI #1

Handbook on the Ethics of AI

For the impatient, a book's introduction might present an unwelcome delay to the main course, and course is the word with Gunkel's edited text and said introduction. As a nurse with a BA(Joint Hons.) in Philosophy and Computing this book deserved the close reading sought. In that respect - the learning is ongoing. A book so titled could be 'heavy' going; especially given the many associated technicalities (hard and soft), the sheer dynamism that is AI (as per the arrival of DeepSeek) and uncertainties this provokes.

So, is this heavy? No, the book isn't, it is a learned production. Speaking of which the quality of production (hardback - for which many thanks to the editor and Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd) is very high; the design, text, legibility, layout. Vital for me, there is an index that seems in-depth and spans just over ten pages. There are notes too. Chapter 15 did have me wondering. Initially I did not look up the note '1' in the title. Had I done so, I would known the adopted format aims to represent a conversation: so all good. If you don't check the notes as you meet them, you will play number-tracking for a minute or two. There are a couple of typos but these are repeated words e.g. is is (page 17). Otherwise, the bar is set very high. Added to the notes, which do add to the chapters, the introduction sets a well referenced tone. As an appetizer the five part intro divides the book as follows:

1. Definitions, Foundations and Context
2. Responsibilities
3. Rights
4. Politics and Power
5. Thinking Otherwise

As written previously, I get 'bogged' down with books - in a positive way - this one brings even more joy. My copy has many notes (light pencil!) in the margin and on various coffee receipts. The contents which includes and from each of the above:

1 What Is This Thing Called the Ethics of AI and What Calls for It?
2 AI Ethics before Frankenstein: Mary Shelley, Enlightenment Political Thought, and the Problem of Bad Education
4 What are Responsible AI researchers really arguing about?
5 Responding to the (techno) Responsibility Gap(s)
7 AI Ethics and Machine Ethics
8 From Ethics to Law: Why, When, and How to Regulate AI
9 AI, Design, and More-than-Human Justice
10 Anthropomorphism and its Discontents
11 A Relational Approach to Moral Standing for Robots and AI
13 AI and the Environment
15 The (Un)bearable Whiteness of AI Ethics
16 Ethics beyond Ethics: AI, Power, and Colonialism
19 Feminist Ethics and AI: A Subfield of Feminist Philosophy of Technology
21 Queering the ethics of AI

- is much needed across all disciplines, in education and professions. 

A political emphasis is evident already in the divisions 1-5 listed above. Preoccupied as I am with Hodges' model, to me this means the book is accurately balanced at this time. The contents may be daunting to some, but it is readable, and structured. The volume gels together in the prose style with some obvious individual differences which complement rather than jar. As a handbook it delivers and provides avenues for further reading - web resources in addition to more conventional text sources. As befits a handbook, the introduction part 6, reads Instructions for Use, which prompted the thought of Hodges' model as a self-directing* situated 'handbook'. Duly anthropomorphized, the book's cover looks east to new beginnings. I'm sure the editor did not realise the irony of the introduction's closing sentence:

'And in this effort - as I hope the handbook makes clear and evident in both its content and form - diversity is a valuable resource, as there is more to be gained from differences in approaches, perspectives, and methods than there is from the pretense to unanimity.'. p.12.

With US politics gradually unfurling itself; I thought too of irony² as AI wakes, efforts commence to erase wokeness.

Much more to follow ...

Handbook on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence. David J. Gunkel (ed.). Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd. ISBN: 978 1 80392 671 1245
https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/handbook-on-the-ethics-of-artificial-intelligence-9781803926711.html

*or group.