The Right Thing at the Right Time: A Phronetic Look at AI

My purpose is to highlight the importance of virtue ethics in the discussion on AI ethics. The standard approach seeks to adapt normative ethics to the technological world.This perspective is top-down; the focus is on the implementation of universal norms and values. In contrast, the phronetic perspective is bottom-up. The focus is not on universal norms but on the development of personal virtues. So, three steps are developed: 1) a look at the standard approach; 2) a look at Aristotelian phronesis; 3) some final remarks on the possibility of designing virtuous machines.