+ POLICY — Keir Starmer has said ministers should be able to “look every parent in the eye” and pledge that tech can cre…− POLICY — Artificial intelligence poses a “Hiroshima”-style risk to humanity if governments do not agree to curb how it…− CLIMATE — Artificial intelligence is often associated with ludicrous amounts of electricity, and therefore planet-heati…− EDUCATION — While many schools in England have banned smartphones, in Estonia – regarded as the new European education po…− EDUCATION — In a Cambridge classroom, Joseph, 10, trained his AI model to discern between drawings of apples and drawings…− EDUCATION — OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently told a US podcast that if he was graduating today, “I would feel like the luck…+ EDUCATION — I disagree with the decision of lecturers to use artificial intelligence to create teaching materials (‘We co…− BUSINESS — Americans are growing worried about what artificial intelligence portends for their futures. Eight in 10 Amer…
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Science·G Space·Evidence-backed gain·Published 2026-07-12

The Ethics of AI Ethics: An Evaluation of Guidelines

Abstract Current advances in research, development and application of artificial intelligence (AI) systems have yielded a far-reaching discourse on AI ethics. In consequence, a number of ethics guidelines have been released in recent years. These guidelines comprise normative principles and recommendations aimed to harness the “disruptive” potentials of new AI technologies. Designed as a semi-systematic evaluation, this paper analyzes and compares 22 guidelines, highlighting overlaps but also omissions. As a res…

TRV-2026-0056Peer-reviewedPermanent record — cite & verify
The Ethics of AI Ethics: An Evaluation of Guidelines

"220421-N-BD231-1088" by United States Naval Academy Photo Archive is marked with Public Domain Mark 1.0. To view the terms, visit https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/.

The quick read

Abstract Current advances in research, development and application of artificial intelligence (AI) systems have yielded a far-reaching discourse on AI ethics. In consequence, a number of ethics guidelines have been released in recent years.

These guidelines comprise normative principles and recommendations aimed to harness the “disruptive” potentials of new AI technologies. As a result, I give a detailed overview of the field of AI ethics.

Main points
  • Abstract Current advances in research, development and application of artificial intelligence (AI) systems have yielded a far-reaching discourse on AI ethics.
  • In consequence, a number of ethics guidelines have been released in recent years.
  • These guidelines comprise normative principles and recommendations aimed to harness the “disruptive” potentials of new AI technologies.
Gain

Finally, I also examine to what extent the respective ethical principles and values are implemented in the practice of research, development and application of AI systems, and how the effectiveness in the demands of AI ethics can be improved.

The rundown

These guidelines comprise normative principles and recommendations aimed to harness the “disruptive” potentials of new AI technologies. Designed as a semi-systematic evaluation, this paper analyzes and compares 22 guidelines, highlighting overlaps but also omissions.

Sources

The debate