AI Companies Need Responsible Leaders, Not Ethical Ones

In recent years tech company executives have pushed back against employee activism and pressure to act ethically, with Google firing more than 50 employees who protested the company’s contracts with Israel in the wake of the Gaza war. It raises the question of whether companies should act ‘ethically’ or ‘responsibly’. I discuss the recent dispute between AI company Anthropic and The Pentagon, the former taking a moral stance on the use of its technology, which ended in The Pentagon designating the firm as a supply chain risk. I argue that corporations should favor acting responsibly, taking accountability for an outcome and managing its consequences rather than reducing everything to a black or white moral ...