Introduction to Business Ethics and Google

Choose a recent news/media article that has been published within the last 3 months that concerns a business ethics issues and discuss about it.

Business ethics is indicative of the study in relation to business policies along with practices that are controversial. It can be related to corporate governance, bribery, discrimination and insider trading. Law can help in guiding the business ethics and business ethics can help in providing a framework that can be used by the business for gaining public acceptance. Business ethics can help in ensuring that trust exist between the business and the consumers. Business ethics concepts rose in the era of 1960’s when the companies understood the importance of consumer based society. It can help in showing concerns in relation to environment along with social causes (Crane and Matten 2016). Google is a multinational technology company which is based in America which specializes in providing internet-related services. The rapid growth of the company has given rise to chain of products along with acquisitions which are beyond that of the Google search engine. This essay elaborates on the ethical issue that arises with the unveiling of Google Assistant. It summarizes the arguments that have been made in the article and the legal implications that may arise on account of the new service. It elaborates on the ethical issues and whether the ethical decision that was made was appropriate.

The article talks about the innovative Google digital assistant that talks like that of a real person. The robo-assistant sounds like a human being and it has been able to surprise many observer. It has left the others worried regarding the ethics regarding how the software can be made use of that resembles the human being. The demonstration of the Google Duplex has raised a debate regarding whether the common people should be informed that they are talking to a software and not a human being since the people cannot understand that they are talking to a software (Economictimes.indiatimes.com 2018).  This technology can be abused and it can be used by the marketers and other kinds of political campaigns for serving their narrow interest. The Google Assistant called Duplex carries out the communication like a human being with another person in order to complete real world task. Two demos were presented to the audience one in which a female voice made a call to a hair salon for the scheduling of a hair appointment. The second voice was in relation to a male voice who completed reservation booking within a restaurant. The argument has been raised on account of the fact that unlike the pattern in relation to voice assistant like that of Siri the artificial intelligence called Google Duplex seemed like a human being and the different kinds of expressions like “Um”, “ Mhm” made it seem just like a human being. The taking of a pause in between made it sound all the more like a human being. There are however some people who voiced concerns. The argument arises owing to the fact whether the AI should identify himself in the beginning of starting the conversation as the person on the other end is staying unaware about the identity of the robot on the other end (Trevino and Nelson 2016).s The intersection in relation to human rights and that of AI technology has grown in the recent decade. The creation of Google Duplex is in a way violating the human right of an individual in respect to right of knowledge. The complication is created owing to the fact that the AI cannot be held accountable for their own actions. The law has to adapt to the technological changes taking place in the arena of technology (Pearson 2017). The question arises on account of the fact that whether the AI should be held liable in case something goes in the wrong direction. The manufacturers pertaining to AI should agree to certain ethical guidelines that can help in the case of any major issues arising when one has to take recourse to law (Wenger 2014).

Google Assistant Duplex: The Ethical Debate

The main ethical issue of the article arises due to the fact whether the Google Assistant called Duplex should convey it in the beginning of any kind of telephonic conversation that it is not a human being but rather a robot. The primary goal of Google Duplex revolves around conducting natural conversation in order to aid in the process of carrying out “real world” task (Weiss 2014). The digital assistant will make it necessary that recording is done after finishing of the call so that the reservation can be made with the help of e-mail. It is this a violation of the right to privacy of an individual to which all the human beings are entitled to. It thus accounts for the violation of the human dignity and it leads to the violation of the rights of an individual. This can be termed as the age that spreads disinformation in which the fake news thrives and the common people cannot completely trust technology. Google has taken extra steps in order to make disguises to the system that can sound like a human being. The imperfections that have been used are mainly aimed at deceiving the humans into thinking that it is not a machine but rather a normal human voice (Chell et al. 2016). It is praiseworthy that the voice of a human cannot be distinguished from the voice of the robot but it comes with a lot of moral questions. The key issue pertains to the fact whether it is the responsibility of Google to reveal that it is actually AI who is posing like that of a human being. Google should be more transparent in its policies and it should be able to identify itself. It is the moral responsibility of Google being an organization to be transparent and the extra steps for hiding of the robot interface was aimed at deceiving the human beings (Hoffman, Frederick and Schwartz 2014). A smooth-sounding voice could easily have been created instead of one that tried to act in a more human manner. The computer voice even speaks in the “up speak” manner and the manner of ending the statements like a question made it look like a human being. The machine can very effectively spoof a human being and the extent to which artificial intelligence has evolved can prove to be disastrous for a human being. It raises questions regarding what good it can bring to the society. People would not be able to understand which news is fake and one would not be able to believe his own ears.

The Intersection of Human Rights and AI Technology

Silicon Valley should consider the implications in relation to technology before they start building it. Advanced bot technology should be used with a lot of transparency and it should not jeopardize the life of the common people. The appropriate decisions have not been made as the creation of such a system can create confusion among the public (Grayson and Hodges 2017). In the year 2016, Microsoft had to endure public relations nightmare when the AI persona by the name of Tay went off-message and started saying abusive epithets. Nazi sentiments were expressed by this AI persona like that of “Hitler was right”. Tay was repeating the offensive statement that was actually made by other human beings who were actually attempting to incite Tay. The primary aim of the chat box was to imitate the language of millennial female. By taking recourse to machine learning, Tay could process the inputted phrases and it could blend it with other kind of relevant data. Tay was initially designed in order to entertain some people so that they could connect with each other with the help of the online platform by using playful conversation (Ramasastry 2015).  Wikipedia makes use of small army in relation to automated software that can crawl over the site and correct different kinds of errors. It can help in cleaning up the aspect of digital vandalism. It was later found out by University of Oxford that the bots used to engage themselves in feuds and the two bots provided with conflicting instruction will try to correct each other. It will thus pave the path for infinite loop in relation to digital aggression (Nilsson 2014). The wiki bots account for being primitive kind of AI and the conflict in between these groups can play havoc for the company. Fights can start between among the sophisticated AI government or that of the military system that can prove to be disastrous for the human race. Uber the ride-sharing service have conducted test of the self-driving cars without being approved by that of California state regulators. Internal documents brought out the fact that the autonomous vehicles had ran through six red light at the time of testing. The self-driving technology is dependent on a complex system of the sensors along with that of networking mapping software (Kolk 2016). The internal documents of Uber brought out the fact that the vehicle had run through red light when it was in the middle of a busy road. It shows that the future pertaining to artificial intelligence can prove to be quite bleak for the entire mankind. In the similar manner, I think that Google Assistant Duplex will run into some problem in the near future and it can prove to be catastrophic for the entire human race.

Implications of Advanced Bot Technology

Deontology is the moral philosophy that lays stress on rights pertaining to the individuals within the society. It focuses on the intentions in relation to a particular behaviour as compared to that of the consequences (Schermerhorn et al. 2014). This moral philosophy states the equal respect should be given to all the persons. The Google Assistant called Duplex can mimic the human voice but in doing this they are violating the rights of the individuals within the society. A person has the right to know with whom they are talking to and the Google Assistant by hiding its real identity is keeping the human beings in the dark. Acknowledging the fact in the beginning of the conversation that they are actually robots created by Google could have made the system more transparent (Russell and Norvig 2016). The deceiving of the human beings can be averted with the help of acknowledgement and it can thus help in saving the rights of the individuals (Cheng, Ioannou and Serafeim 2014). The deontologists believe in the fact that there are certain things that should not be done even for maximising the factor of utility. The AI technology being used by Google can serve in providing benefits but it is being done at the cost of the right of a human being. Term known as “nature” is important for the deontologists. The Google Assistant being used violates the natural order of the universe and it acts as an infringement to that of the individual rights. The deontological philosophy focuses on that of the individual actor and not the society (Den Hond, de Bakker and Neergaard 2016). The moral right of an individual is being violated with the help of Google Assistant called Duplex and the computer voice posing like a human being serves to deceive the human beings.

Conclusion:

The robo-assistant called Duplex sounding like a human being has surprised the world however it has raised many questions in relation to ethical rights. The software resembling a human being and hiding its identity takes away the rights of the human being. Ethical issues can arise owing to the fact that the human beings were not informed about the identity of the robot. Google Assistant called Duplex did not reveal in the beginning of the telephonic conversation that it was a robot. This can create complications and this can serve to violate the rights of the human beings. The AI based robot is involving itself in natural conversation so that “real world” tasks can be carried out. Deontology lays focus on the aspect of rights of the individuals within the society. The intentions of an individual are highlighted as compared to that of the results. The AI based robot is taking away the rights and respect of the individuals in the society.

References:

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Cheng, B., Ioannou, I. and Serafeim, G., 2014. Corporate social responsibility and access to finance. Strategic Management Journal, 35(1), pp.1-23.

Crane, A. and Matten, D., 2016. Business ethics: Managing corporate citizenship and sustainability in the age of globalization. Oxford University Press.

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Economictimes.indiatimes.com (2018). Human-sounding Google Assistant using Duplex tech sparks racial and ethnic debate. [online] The Economic Times. Available at: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/human-sounding-google-assistant-using-duplex-tech-sparks-racial-and-ethnic-debate/articleshow/64105605.cms [Accessed 19 May 2018].

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Pearson, R., 2017. Business ethics as communication ethics: Public relations practice and the idea of dialogue. In Public relations theory (pp. 111-131). Routledge.

Ramasastry, A., 2015. Corporate social responsibility versus business and human rights: Bridging the gap between responsibility and accountability. Journal of Human Rights, 14(2), pp.237-259.

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