Moral and Political Worries in Artificial Intelligence

This book examines AI not merely as a technical innovation but as a moral, legal, and political challenge. Through an interdisciplinary lens, it explores how we might harness AI’s potential while confronting its risks, asking what values, duties, and governance structures should guide its responsible development and deployment.

On the one hand AI is hailed as a driver of unprecedented progress, with the potential to alleviate poverty, expand access to education, and improve healthcare outcomes, and on the other, critics highlight risks such as bias, surveillance, erosion of accountability, and even the possibility of autonomous systems escaping human control. Some argue that current AI systems are far less “intelligent” than the label suggests, lacking consciousness or intentionality, and are therefore better understood as powerful but limited tools. Others emphasize the dangers of delegating critical decisions to opaque algorithms, especially in domains such as justice, warfare, or mental health. These divergent perspectives point to a shared recognition: AI cannot be addressed solely as a technical matter but must be evaluated within moral, legal, and political frameworks. In this sense, the key questions are normative: What duties and responsibilities should guide the creation and deployment of AI systems? How can risks such as discrimination, loss of privacy, or democratic erosion be mitigated? And what forms of governance are required to ensure accountability? This book takes up these challenges by examining AI through an interdisciplinary lens, highlighting its promises, its dangers, and the ethical, legal, and political structures necessary to use it responsibly.