Navigating ethical concerns about AI at work

Learn practical steps to address your concerns about AI, and new ways to talk with colleagues about theirs.

Mary ·

Before You Start

Goal: Leave with practical steps to address your ethical concerns about AI, and new ways to talk with colleagues about theirs.

Watch: AI ethics researcher Sasha Luccioni's TEDWomen talk AI Is Dangerous, but Not for the Reasons You Think (about 10 mins) — Members are encouraged to watch beforehand, but a quick recap at the meeting works too.

Meeting Agenda · Approx. 60 mins

  • Member Updates · 10 mins
  • Icebreaker · 10 mins
  • Key Takeaways · 5 mins
  • Activities · 20 mins
  • One Action · 10 mins
  • Wrap-Up · 5 mins

👋 Member Updates · 10 mins

Go around your Circle and share personal updates. Keep them brief and focused on significant changes or important decisions since the last time you met. It's OK not to have one every month. If you have a One Action update from last time, share that too.

🧊 Icebreaker · 10 mins

Invite everyone in the group to share. Keep answers to one or two minutes per person.

Which ethical concern about AI feels most pressing to you (for example, the environment, jobs, low-quality content, long-term risks to humanity)?

🔑 Key Takeaways · 5 mins

Read these aloud or take a minute to review them silently before you start the activities.

  • Environmental concerns have some data behind them — Data centers are among the fastest-growing sources of emissions — although their share of growth in electricity demand is smaller than industrial motors, air conditioning, or electric vehicles. The centers also impact local environments.
  • Job market risks are real but uneven — Women are 86% of the workers most at risk from AI, mostly in administrative roles. Freelance postings for writing and coding have fallen 21% more than for manual work. Entry-level hiring has also dropped for roles AI can do.
  • Existential threats have been widely reported, but researchers disagree on the risk — Some researchers have suggested a 5-10% chance of AI causing human extinction. Others, including Sasha Luccioni, say focusing on future risks distracts from harms happening now.
  • Ethical concerns dampen how much women use AI — Oxford-led researchers found that concerns about AI's effects on mental health, privacy, climate, and jobs reduce women's use of generative AI more than men's.
  • AI use affects careers — Researchers warn that a persistent gender gap in AI use could widen differences in pay and career opportunities.

🏋️ Activity 1 · 10 mins

Think through your own AI concerns and responses

Write it down:

  1. On paper or in a notes app, list your ethical concerns about AI. Choose from this list or add your own: environmental impact, the job market, human creativity, long-term risk to humanity, erosion of critical thinking, low-quality "slop" content, data privacy, copyright, bias.
  2. Beside each concern, write down:
    • How much it weighs on you, from 1 (barely) to 5 (a lot)
    • What you can influence to help address the concern: e.g., your own AI use, your team's norms, your company's policies, your spending
  3. For your top one or two concerns, complete this sentence: "Because I care about ___, I will ___ when I use AI at work."

Examples:

  • "Because I care about critical thinking, I will draft my own outline before I ask AI for input."
  • "Because I care about the environment, I will skip image and video generation I don't need."
  • "Because I care about ethical impact, I will ask my manager, IT manager, or company leadership to check what AI companies publish about their ethical practices before we buy or renew a license."
  • "Because I care about creative work, I will check how AI tools sourced their training data and whether they honor creators' opt-outs."
  • "Because I'm concerned about how AI will change jobs for the people on my team, I will share what I learn about AI tools with them and ask what training and tools they want."
  • "Because I'm concerned about changes to the job market, I will spend 30 minutes a week building a new AI skill that fits my role."

Discuss as a group:

  1. What are your top concerns?
  2. What can you influence to help address your concerns?
  3. Go around the room and have everyone share a "because" statement so you can learn from one another's thinking.

🏋️ Activity 2 · 10 mins

Help a colleague work through their concerns

Colleagues at every level have worries about AI. This four-step approach to listening will help them work through their concerns and build trust:

  • Listen: Ask what concerns them most and let them finish.
  • Acknowledge: Reflect back what you heard, without minimizing the concern. Say so when the evidence supports the worry.
  • Share: Offer your own thoughts.
  • Help align on action: Ask them what could help reduce their concern, and offer to help them come up with a next step.
  1. Form pairs. If your Circle has an odd number, one group can be a trio with an observer. Choose a scenario from the list below.
  2. Round 1 · 3 mins: One person voices a concern. You can pick from the scenarios below or choose your own. The other responds using the four steps.
  3. Round 2 · 3 mins: Swap roles and talk over a different concern — your own, or one chosen from the scenarios below.

Scenarios:

  • "I'm worried AI is going to make my role redundant."
  • "I'm worried about what AI means for the jobs of people I know."
  • "I'm worried about AI's environmental footprint."
  • "I'm worried about AI's effect on creative work."

Discuss as a group:

  1. Which parts of the role play felt helpful to you?
  2. What next steps did you and your partner come up with? Share them so the group can learn from one another.

🎯 One Action · 10 mins

Commit to one concrete action — big or small — you'll take before next meeting. Go around the Circle and share (1 minute or less per member). Vocalizing it helps hold each other accountable.

Put the practice you wrote in Activity 1 into action at work. Come back ready to share how it went.

📅 Wrap-Up · 5 mins

Before you break, plan your next meeting and close on an energetic note. Go around your Circle one by one and finish the sentence:

Now I am feeling… (choose one word).

  • Set the day, time, and location
  • Choose the next topic or resource
  • Confirm who's leading the discussion
  • Decide how you'll stay in touch in between