Abstract

This paper addresses the ethics of artificial intelligence in sociotechnological contexts. After clarifying what «ethics» means when dealing with artificial agents and the three forms in which it can be articulated, the issue of the relationship between artificial intelligence and common sense, the question of the meaning in which machines can have a «consciousness», and the idea of «training» in the case of systems endowed with generative artificial intelligence, such as ChatGpt, are addressed. The ethical implications of these issues are highlighted, especially by taking into account the consequences for the community of human beings and their sociality that technological developments have. The paper was written in the form of a dialogue involving a computer scientist and a philosopher. In this sense it is an example of interdisciplinarity and effective collaboration between informed scientists and concrete humanists.