• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Core Principles of Responsible AI
    • Accountability
    • Fairness
    • Privacy
    • Safety and Security
    • Sustainability
    • Transparency
  • Special Topics
    • AI in Industry
    • Ethical Implications
    • Human-Centered Design
    • Regulatory Landscape
    • Technical Methods
  • Living Dictionary
  • State of AI Ethics
  • AI Ethics Brief
  • 🇫🇷
Montreal AI Ethics Institute

Montreal AI Ethics Institute

Democratizing AI ethics literacy

The Social Contract for AI

June 17, 2020

Full paper in PDF formDownload

Authors: Mirka Snyder Caron, Abhishek Gupta

Abstract

Like any technology, AI systems come with inherent risks and potential benefits. It comes with potential disruption of established norms and methods of work, societal impacts and externalities. One may think of the adoption of technology as a form of social contract, which may evolve or fluctuate in time, scale, and impact. It is important to keep in mind that for AI, meeting the expectations of this social contract is critical, because recklessly driving the adoption and implementation of unsafe, irresponsible, or unethical AI systems may trigger serious backlash against industry and academia involved which could take decades to resolve, if not actually seriously harm society.

For the purpose of this paper, we consider that a social contract arises when there is sufficient consensus within society to adopt and implement this new technology. As such, to enable a social contract to arise for the adoption and implementation of AI, developing: 1) A socially accepted purpose, through 2) A safe and responsible method, with 3) A socially aware level of risk involved, for 4) A socially beneficial outcome, is key.

Full paper in PDF formDownload
Want quick summaries of the latest research & reporting in AI ethics delivered to your inbox? Subscribe to the AI Ethics Brief. We publish bi-weekly.

Primary Sidebar

🔍 SEARCH

Spotlight

Beyond Consultation: Building Inclusive AI Governance for Canada’s Democratic Future

AI Policy Corner: U.S. Executive Order on Advancing AI Education for American Youth

AI Policy Corner: U.S. Copyright Guidance on Works Created with AI

AI Policy Corner: AI for Good Summit 2025

AI Policy Corner: Japan’s AI Promotion Act

related posts

  • Can We Teach AI Robots How to Be Human?

    Can We Teach AI Robots How to Be Human?

  • RĂ©ponse Ă  la Commission d’accès Ă  l’information du QuĂ©bec portant sur les amendements potentiels Ă  l...

    Réponse à la Commission d’accès à l’information du Québec portant sur les amendements potentiels à l...

  • Montreal AI Ethics Institute Hosts a TechAIDE CafĂ© Session

    Montreal AI Ethics Institute Hosts a TechAIDE Café Session

  • Approaches to Deploying a Safe Artificial Moral Agent

    Approaches to Deploying a Safe Artificial Moral Agent

  • 10 Takeaways from the State of AI Ethics in Canada & Spain

    10 Takeaways from the State of AI Ethics in Canada & Spain

  • The Canada Protocol: AI checklist for Mental Health & Suicide Prevention

    The Canada Protocol: AI checklist for Mental Health & Suicide Prevention

  • Montreal AI Symposium Presentation at Polytechnique

    Montreal AI Symposium Presentation at Polytechnique

  • A call for a critical look at the metrics for success in the evaluation of AI

    A call for a critical look at the metrics for success in the evaluation of AI

  • Challenges of AI Ethics (Presentation at Brookfield Institute)

    Challenges of AI Ethics (Presentation at Brookfield Institute)

  • 5 Questions & Answers from StradigiAI's Twitter Roundtable

    5 Questions & Answers from StradigiAI's Twitter Roundtable

Partners

  •  
    U.S. Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute Consortium (AISIC) at NIST

  • Partnership on AI

  • The LF AI & Data Foundation

  • The AI Alliance

Footer

Categories


• Blog
• Research Summaries
• Columns
• Core Principles of Responsible AI
• Special Topics

Signature Content


• The State Of AI Ethics

• The Living Dictionary

• The AI Ethics Brief

Learn More


• About

• Open Access Policy

• Contributions Policy

• Editorial Stance on AI Tools

• Press

• Donate

• Contact

The AI Ethics Brief (bi-weekly newsletter)

About Us


Founded in 2018, the Montreal AI Ethics Institute (MAIEI) is an international non-profit organization equipping citizens concerned about artificial intelligence and its impact on society to take action.


Archive

  • © 2025 MONTREAL AI ETHICS INSTITUTE.
  • This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
  • Learn more about our open access policy here.
  • Creative Commons License

    Save hours of work and stay on top of Responsible AI research and reporting with our bi-weekly email newsletter.