Ethical Responsibility in Artificial Intelligence: A Philosophical and Legal Inquiry

Abstract

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has transitioned from a primarily technical field into a deeply social and ethical force shaping modern life. As AI systems are increasingly deployed in sensitive contexts—healthcare, finance, criminal justice, autonomous vehicles, and military applications—the question of ethical responsibility becomes both urgent and complex. This paper explores the philosophical foundations of responsibility, traces how traditional conceptions of moral agency apply (or fail to apply) to AI systems, and analyzes contemporary legal frameworks and proposals for governing AI accountability. We argue that existing philosophical models of responsibility must be revised to account for distributed agency, opaque decision mechanisms, and autonomous action. Furthermore, legal systems must move beyond metaphors of human-centric culpability toward institutional, hybrid, and multi-layered forms of accountability. Ultimately, this inquiry demonstrates that reconciling ethical theory with legal practice in AI governance requires a synthesis of moral, technical, and socio-legal analyses.