Creativity, empathy, and generosity

Companies can now put their corporate policies in a version of ChatGPT and let their employees ask questions like “Can I give a bottle of wine to a customer for Christmas?”

So far the results I’ve seen are mediocre at best, and sometimes misleading. But soon the AI will be better and provide correct answers. What does this mean for ethics professionals?

For now, they need to work closely with their digital technology friends to make sure the AI tool is heading in the right direction. Once the tool is able to provide correct, unbiased answers, ethics professionals can use their newfound time for more meaningful work (more meaningful than pointing an employee to section 4.2.11 of the gift policy, where the answer resided all along).

Ethics professionals are not going away anytime soon. It’s not like there is a shortage of business ethics issues to be addressed right now. The more complex and deserving ones often get pushed aside because of the urgency created by an employee who needs a Christmas gift reviewed on December 19. We can let a chatbot take care of that, and focus on questions that require creativity, empathy, and generosity.