Public Perceptions, Critical Awareness and Community Discourse on AI Ethics: Evidence from an Online Discussion Forum

As Artificial Intelligence (AI) become increasingly ingrained into society, ethical and regularity concerns become critical. Given the vast array of philosophical considerations of AI ethics, there is a pressing need to understand and balance public opinion and expectations of how AI ethics should be defined and implemented, such that it centers the voice of experts and non-experts alike. This investigation explores a subreddit r/aiethics through a multi-methodological, multi-level approach. The analysis yields six conversational themes, sentiment trends, and emergent roles that elicit narratives associated with expanding implementation, policy, critical literacy, communal preparedness, and increased awareness towards combining technical and social aspects of AI ethics. Such insights can help to distill necessary considerations for the practice of AI ethics beyond scholarly traditions and how informal spaces (such as virtual channels) can and should act as avenues of learning, raising critical consciousness, bolstering connectivity, and enhancing narrative agency on AI ethics.