The 3D model of ethical AI practice

In recent years, there have been growing calls to operationalize artificial intelligence (AI) ethics - to move from theory to practice, or (as one group of authors has put it) ‘from what to how’ (Morley et al. 2020). In this paper, we propose a novel account of what ethical AI practice might look like, which we call the 3D model, named for its recognition, within the overall AI design cycle, of the three stages of design, development, and deployment. This model aims to embed ethics throughout this cycle, offering questions that should be addressed at each stage. We articulate the benefits of this approach to ethical AI practice: that it is pro-ethical and value-aware, amenable to implementation, it embeds ethics at every stage of the development process, it embeds a culture and language of ethics in organizations and provides clear decision points. Our model is not a panacea, of course, and we accordingly provide an indication of the context in which the implementation of our model might be most effective in ensuring ethical AI practice.