The Diffusion of Responsibility: Moral Latency and the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence
The Diffusion of Responsibility: Moral Latency and the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence Carl Jean Abstract This essay examines how artificial intelligence transforms moral responsibility by redistributing decision-making across complex socio-technical systems. It introduces the concept of moral latency , defined as the diffusion, delay, and weakening of accountability within AI-mediated processes. Drawing on Kantian ethics, Arendtian political theory, and contemporary AI governance scholarship, the essay argues that responsibility increasingly fails to arrive where decisions take effect. While some argue that AI reveals the inherently collective nature of responsibility, this essay contends that accountability must remain actionable to be meaningful. It proposes an ethical threshold at which systems cease to assist human judgment and begin to displace it. The essay concludes that artificial intelligence is ethically legitimate only when responsibility remains enforceable—capabl...
