Working for Us or on Us? Ethics as a Strategic Asset for AI Avatars

AI avatars and agents are arriving fast and spreading wide. They will guide us through news and information, shape how we shop and learn, support medical decisions, and increasingly mediate our social and political lives. These systems will go beyond retrieving answers or optimising tasks. They will speak with us, present faces and personalities, and filter how reality is interpreted.

But when interfaces become conversational, something fundamental changes. The line between informing and influencing becomes thin, porous, and often invisible. The question is therefore not whether AI avatars will work, they will, but whether they will work for us, supporting autonomy and trust, or subtly work on us, shaping beliefs and behaviour without our awareness.

This lightning talk argues that ethics is needed to unlock the potential of AI avatars and agents. Ethical design makes them more effective, more trusted, and more valuable over time. Far from slowing progress, ethics becomes strategic infrastructure, and a competitive advantage for building systems people rely on and societies can integrate.

Dieser Programmpunkt wird durch die Stiftung Mercator unterstützt. / This programme session is supported by Stiftung Mercator.