Code of Ethics for “Empathetic” Generative AI

• Jon Neiditz

Anyone interested in the potential for generative AI to move technology beyond some of its vices should focus particularly on the current rapid movement toward “kind” and “empathetic” AI, because depending on its design and guardrails it can do great good or pose unprecedented psychosocial hazards. Mirroring the depths and nuances of human empathy is likely to be the most effective way to help us become the hybrid intelligences many of us need to become, but its potential to undermine independent reflection and focused attention, polarize our societies and undermine our cultures is equally unprecedented, particularly in the service of political or other non-fiduciary actors. Particularly given our emerging discovery and governance of generative AI as a potential Privacy-Enhancing Technology (PET), all privacy and data protection professionals and authorities should approach the deep personalization of “empathetic” AI with the highest degree of scrutiny.