Artificial Intelligence’s (AI’s) Responsible Use: How to Manage Digital Ethicswashing

Artificial intelligence (AI) applications’ increasing development highlights not only several opportunities for companies and stakeholders but also various risks. Specifically, the question arises whether AI’s (ir)responsible use might lead to corporate conduct failing to align with its ethical principles. This is known as digital ethicswashing—a firm’s strategy based on misleading reporting of AI’s responsible use—and aims at gaining company stakeholders’ acceptance and loyalty. The research goal is to examine digital ethicswashing practices by investigating disclosures in this respect’s reliability, specifically those related to AI use’s social aspects. Since our work endeavors to observe a new problem’s nature, we develop an exploratory analysis to investigate companies implement digital ethicswashing by using their disclosure. Our first contribution comprises a dashboard’s design, which is useful for managing digital ethicswashing. The second contribution explains the need for AI auditing tools, which can, thanks to third-party experts’ work, minimize misleading practices.