AI Ethics Values Clash with Global Realities

This study investigates how universally proclaimed AI ethical values, such as fairness, transparency, and accountability, are understood and applied in diverse global settings. Through interviews with 14 experts across 10 countries, the researchers found that the deployment of AI is significantly shaped by unequal conditions, including infrastructural limitations, extractive practices, and a general "mystification" of the technology. These contextual factors lead experts to reinterpret core values to align with local moral frameworks. For instance, privacy is often viewed as collective and relational rather than individual, transparency as a means to build trust and accountability rather than mere technical disclosure, and fairness as equitable access and representation rather than strict parity of outcomes. The paper terms these discrepancies "translation gaps" between globally encoded ethical frameworks and the realities of local practices. It proposes a shift towards plural governance models that distribute epistemic authority and treat ethical considerations as an ongoing, context-sensitive negotiation, rather than a fixed technical standard.