Professional Societies as Adopters and Enforcers of AI Soft Law

Professional societies that include artificial intelligence (AI) practitioners as members have been active in adopting and communicating codes of ethics for their membership. Such professional codes of ethics likely have an expressive benefit in encouraging society members to give greater consideration to ethical factors, although the relatively few empirical studies on professional society codes of ethics have failed to demonstrate any consistent, practical benefit. In contrast, company codes of ethics have been demonstrated to be effective in some contexts, because the company as employer can create a supportive work environment that values and rewards ethical behavior. This article proposes three potential strategies to increase the effectiveness and credibility of professional society ethical codes as governance tools. First, enforcement of the codes should be broader and more transparent. Second, employers could be enlisted to help enforce the codes adopted by professional societies, given employers’ greater influence in creating a more compliant and ethical workplace culture. Third, AI practitioners could be professionalized, with accompanying licensure, educational, and ethical requirements. There are pros and cons related to each of these three strategies.