The extraordinary development of AI raises unprecedented ethical challenges that require a constant reconfiguration of the conceptual frameworks in which they are addressed. This paper examines how care ethics can offer a valuable theoretical framework for approaching AI ethics. The ethical debate around AI is dominated by utilitarianism and deontology, which emphasize abstract principles like utility maximization and rule-based morality. In contrast, care ethics focuses on relationships, empathy, and the moral significance of context, offering a more nuanced approach to AI ethics. The paper proposes an investigation of the concepts of care and vulnerability, arguing that although these notions are often underrepresented in debates about AI ethics, they offer valuable insights for shaping a meaningful conceptual background to address the moral challenges posed by AI. While technological progress has always exposed people to new forms of vulnerability, the context shaped by the development of digital technologies reveals not only an intensification of vulnerability but also a diversification of its forms, unfolding at an accelerated pace and, above all, in ways that are difficult to anticipate. In this regard, I outlined several conceptual landmarks by drawing on classical analyses of care and vulnerability. Then, I turned my attention to the concept of technological vulnerability, identifying three main categories (epistemic, structural, and relational), and emphasizing the significant impact this form of vulnerability has on our lives. From this perspective, I argue that the ethics of care can offer valuable tools for rethinking the framework of AI ethics, in a way that acknowledges the importance of relationality, vulnerability, and the situated nature of ethical decision-making. However, this approach to AI ethics should not be regarded as an obstacle to technological progress, but rather as a necessary counterbalance to the disruptive forces reshaping the world we live in.