Abstract

An attempt to survey all non-western AI ethics guidelines that are available either in English or in Thai was made to find out whether there are any cultural elements within them that could shed light on how we understand their backgrounds and how these elements could advance the discussion on intercultural ethics of technology. The cultural elements are found to be superficially universal in that they retain the language used in the guidelines found in the west but contain interestingly unique cultural elements when probed deeper. For example, many non-western guidelines have an injunction “Be ethical” without specifying the content of the ethical in question. We present an analysis of this and other unique aspects of the non-western guidelines in terms of broad cultural traditions that inform the guidelines and their drafters. This leads to a normative argument that what is understood to be universal in intercultural ethics is in fact based on the desire of many cultures to live and work together, and not, as ethical universalists seem to argue, on some culture-transcendent standard of morality.