Text by Satu Rantakokko
The ethical challenges of AI are thought-provoking. I plan to explore some of them in my upcoming blog posts. What prompted this reflection is the explosive growth in the use of conversational AI, which often means that ethical considerations are lagging behind. This is my first surface-level take on a topic I will return to from various perspectives later.
People ask AIs questions and request them to perform various tasks, such as creating funny images or videos. Increasingly, we encounter the results of such playful interactions on video platforms or AI-generated responses used as “fact-checks” in conversations. AI is also widely used in professional settings in various capacities.
What makes AI usage so appealing? In addition to general novelty and curiosity, reasons include the pursuit of productivity and efficiency at work, enhancing learning and creativity, supporting communication between friends, providing social support for decision-making, and assisting with routine tasks. People also seek help with information retrieval and content creation. (See e.g., Skjuve, Brandtzaeg, & Følstad, 2024)
What about as a substitute for social relationships? Yes, that happens too—and it’s no wonder. Conversational AI appears interested in the user and their thoughts, is always available to chat, and even seems to offer emotional support. (See e.g., Abu-Samhan 2024; Lott & Hasselberger 2025)
Personally, I can certainly relate to the appeal of novelty, productivity, creative work, and the joy of offloading routine tasks. I write these blog posts in Finnish, and Copilot handles the translation, which is then review. The images accompanying my blog posts are also created with Copilot.
The most concerning uses, in my view, are relying on AI for decision-making and as a substitute for social relationships to the extent that an emotional bond with the AI may form. I also find its role as a learning assistant questionable in certain contexts.
People’s attitudes toward AI often mirror their attitudes toward other technologies. The collection of large amounts of data raises concerns about security and privacy. However, when interacting with AI, users tend to share more sensitive and private information than on other platforms. (See e.g., Ali, Arunasalam & Farrukh 2025)
When adoption is this rapid and widespread, it raises the question of whether ethical frameworks are keeping pace. Ethical considerations around AI have been discussed for decades, but for a long time, these discussions were mostly theoretical and academic rather than focused on practical applications. The growth of empirical and practice-oriented research began around 2018, and interest has continued to grow rapidly since then. (See Vainio-Pekka et al., 2023)
Key ethical challenges related to AI include privacy and security, data bias and fairness, and users’ lack of understanding of AI’s impacts. (See e.g., Vainio-Pekka et al., 2023)
In terms of privacy and security, challenges include data collection and the use of conversations as training material. Safety concerns include, at the very least, incorrect advice. The fairness perspective refers to the risk that AI may echo and reinforce societal biases, such as discrimination and marginalization. (See e.g., Vainio-Pekka et al., 2023) Users’ lack of understanding of AI’s impacts may relate to issues such as accountability or the opacity of algorithms. I will explore these topics further in future blog posts.
In what ways do you use AI? What ethical questions or concerns does AI raise for you?
References:
Abu-Samhan, M. (2024). On Friendship: Should We Befriend Artificial Intelligence?. https://summit.sfu.ca/_flysystem/fedora/2024-05/Mishael_Abu-Samhan-PhilHonThes-2024.pdf
Lott, M., & Hasselberger, W. (2025). With Friends Like These: Love and Friendship with AI Agents: M. Lott and W. Hasselberger. Topoi, 1-13. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11245-025-10247-8
Skjuve, M., Brandtzaeg, P. B., & Følstad, A. (2024). Why do people use ChatGPT? Exploring user motivations for generative conversational AI. First Monday. https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/13541
Heidi Vainio-Pekka, Mamia Ori-Otse Agbese, Marianna Jantunen, Ville Vakkuri, Tommi Mikkonen, Rebekah Rousi, and Pekka Abrahamsson. 2023. The Role of Explainable AI in the Research Field of AI Ethics. ACM Trans. Interact. Intell. Syst. 13, 4, Article 26 (December 2023), 39 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3599974
