The role of the board in governance of artificial intelligence ethics – a case for JSE listed companies

Abstract

This interdisciplinary study enriches academic discourse by merging corporate governance and AI ethics insights, offering a comprehensive perspective on the ethical issues surrounding AI development, deployment, and implementation. This study aims to investigate how corporate boards can lead and set a tone for ethically managing AI technologies, ensuring that these technologies align with ethically sound strategic objectives. It contributes uniquely to scholarly dialogue by examining the board's role in AI ethics and governance through the lens of both AI ethics literature, corporate governance principles and AI technology’s impact on society.

To date, the existing literature on AI ethics has largely centred on software developers’ tasks or the broader regulatory aspects of AI technologies, paying minimal attention to the board's influence or their oversight responsibilities within private sector companies. Boards play a pivotal role in fostering an ethical AI culture, managing AI opportunities and the potential societal risks AI poses, including ethical dilemmas, biases, and reputational threats.

A qualitative phenomenological method was employed to understand and interpret board members' experiences, with the aim of uncovering the meanings within their lived experiences. The findings of the empirical study highlight the board's crucial role in establishing ethical guidelines for AI governance and were corroborated by the literature review.

For responsible AI ethics governance, it is imperative for boards to establish robust structures, processes, and rational mechanisms for responsible AI ethics governance to mitigate the significant risks associated with AI technologies, such as bias, discrimination, and privacy violations. The study adopted a stakeholder-inclusive approach, which guided the recommendations, which includes setting up an AI Centre of Excellence in private sector corporations, enhancing the Social and Ethics Committee for AI oversight, establishing a board technology committee and AI governance framework principles and having AI expert(s) at the board level.