The Ethics of Explainability

In this chapter, we turn towards the ethical benefits of explainable technologies. After discussing several instrumental benefits of explainability, we turn towards the deontologically motivated debate of “right to explanation” and their arguments. In refuting that approach on theoretical and practical grounds, we instead introduce the idea of a “claim to expertise”, which preserves our practices and allows unexplainable technology to be added to these practices without much disruption. In discussion the consequences of unexplainable technology for democratic governance, this chapter provides some reasons why explainability might be useful politically.