How social media impacts the autonomy of its users is a topic of increasing focus. However, much of the literature that explores these impacts fails to engage in depth with the philosophical literature on autonomy. This has resulted in a failure to consider the full range of impacts that social media might have on autonomy. A deeper consideration of these impacts is thus needed, given the importance of both autonomy as a moral concept and social media as a feature of (...) contemporary life. By drawing on this philosophical literature, we argue that autonomy is broadly a matter of developing autonomy competencies, having authentic ends and control over key aspects of your own life, and not being manipulated, coerced, and controlled by others. We show how the autonomy of users of social media can be disrespected and harmed through the control that social media can have over its users’ data, attention, and behaviour. We conclude by discussing various recommendations to better regulate social media. (shrink)

Generative AI technologies have the potential to be socially and politically transformative. In this paper, we focus on exploring the potential impacts that Generative AI could have on the functioning of our democracies and the nature of citizenship. We do so by drawing on accounts of deliberative democracy and the deliberative virtues associated with it, as well as the reciprocal impacts that social media and Generative AI will have on each other and the broader information landscape. Drawing on this background (...) theory, we outline some of the key positive and negative impacts that Generative AI is likely to have on democratic citizenship. The political significance of these impacts suggests the need for further regulation. (shrink)

The rapid adoption of commercial Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen AI) products raises important questions around the impact this technology will have on our communicative interactions. This paper provides an analysis of some of the potential implications that Artificial Intelligence-Mediated Communication (AI-MC) may have on epistemic trust in online communications, specifically on social media. We argue that AI-MC poses a risk to epistemic trust being diminished in online communications on both normative and descriptive grounds. Descriptively, AI-MC seems to (roughly) lower levels (...) of epistemic trust. Normatively, we argue that this brings about the following dilemma. On the one hand, there are at least some instances where we should epistemically trust AI-MC less, and therefore the reduction in epistemic trust is justified in these instances. On the other hand, there are also instances where we epistemically trust AI-MC less, but this reduction in epistemic trust is not justified, resulting in discrimination and epistemic injustice in these instances. The difficulty in knowing which of these two groups any instance of AI-MC belongs to brings about the AI-MC dilemma: We must choose between maintaining normal levels of epistemic trust and risking epistemic gullibility when reduced trust is justified, or adopting generally reduced epistemic trust and risking epistemic injustice when such reduced trust is unjustified. Navigating this choice between problematic alternatives creates a significant challenge for social media as an epistemic environment. (shrink)

This paper provides a philosophically informed and robust account of the global justice implications of Artificial Intelligence (AI). We first discuss some of the key theories of global justice, before justifying our focus on the Capabilities Approach as a useful framework for understanding the context-specific impacts of AI on low- to middle-income countries. We then highlight some of the harms and burdens facing low- to middle-income countries within the context of both AI use and the AI supply chain, by analyzing (...) the extraction of _materials_, which includes mineral extraction and the environmental harms associated with it, and the extraction of _labor_, which includes unethical labor practices, low wages, and the trauma experienced by some AI workers. We then outline some of the potential harms and benefits that AI poses, how these are distributed, and what global justice implications this has for low- to middle-income countries. Finally, we articulate the global justice significance of AI by utilizing the Capabilities Approach. We argue that AI must be considered from a global justice perspective given that, globally, AI puts significant downward pressure on several elements of well-being thereby making it harder for people to achieve threshold levels of the central human capabilities needed for a life of dignity. (shrink)