A systemic perspective on bridging the principles-to-practice gap in creating ethical artificial intelligence solutions – a critique of dominant narratives and proposal for a collaborative way forward

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ABSTRACT We critique demands in artificial intelligence and technology development for bridging the so-called principles-to-practice gap that are voiced for instrumental reasons, such as accelerating adoption or creating trust, via clearly actionable ethical rules or via outsourced guidance offered by ethics ‘experts.’ We contend that these views are prone to amount to a simple reconfiguration of technical implementation. We support inclusive and philosophically grounded ethical reflection as key to bridging the gap. However, we acknowledge that this requires assistance, e.g., in the form of platform structures as part of ecosystem governance. Such platforms should facilitate inclusive discourse to disaggregate ethical principles on different levels of abstraction, and contextual framings, as well as support the considerable interdisciplinary work for unpacking them. Translating ethical principles into practice involves indispensable collaborative processes of (self-)reflection, including those with epistemic privilege on the relevant subject matter. We propose that ecosystems should provide the corresponding infrastructure.