1
Faculty of Persian and Foreign Language, Department of Philosophy, Tabriz, Iran
2
Proffessor, Research Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies, Department for Western Philosophy
10.22034/jpiut.2026.70724.4376
Abstract
In recent years, the emergence and rapid expansion of artificial intelligence systems have posed a fundamental question to moral philosophy and the philosophy of technology: how can moral responsibility be meaningfully discussed in a context in which decision-making and action are carried out by non-human entities? In the classical philosophical tradition, moral responsibility has always been closely tied to human agency, intention, consciousness, and freedom of will; however, the advent of intelligent technologies has fundamentally challenged this traditional linkage. The present article aims to reconceptualize moral responsibility in relation to artificial intelligence and seeks to take a step toward a philosophical elucidation of the challenges surrounding it, commonly referred to as the “responsibility gap.”
The research method adopted in this article is analytical–interpretive and is grounded in the philosophy of technology and the ethics of artificial intelligence. The findings indicate that within human–machine interactive networks, classical models of moral responsibility are no longer sufficient. Instead, moral responsibility must be understood within a relational framework that is inherently distributed across both human and non-human agents. In the next stage, the article examines concrete instances of the responsibility gap through the analysis of two applied cases. Finally, it proposes a three-level model of moral responsibility encompassing the design level, the organizational level, and the institutional level.
This study seeks to demonstrate that, in the face of emerging technologies, the question of a single moral agent gives way to an inquiry into a network of relationships, influences, and reciprocal forms of accountability.
Firoozbakht, S. and Shahraeini, S. M. (2026). the Possibility of Moral Responsibility in Artificial Intelligence: A Philosophical Explaination of the Responsibility Gap. Journal of Philosophical Investigations, (), -. doi: 10.22034/jpiut.2026.70724.4376
MLA
Firoozbakht, S. , and Shahraeini, S. M. . "the Possibility of Moral Responsibility in Artificial Intelligence: A Philosophical Explaination of the Responsibility Gap", Journal of Philosophical Investigations, , , 2026, -. doi: 10.22034/jpiut.2026.70724.4376
HARVARD
Firoozbakht, S., Shahraeini, S. M. (2026). 'the Possibility of Moral Responsibility in Artificial Intelligence: A Philosophical Explaination of the Responsibility Gap', Journal of Philosophical Investigations, (), pp. -. doi: 10.22034/jpiut.2026.70724.4376
CHICAGO
S. Firoozbakht and S. M. Shahraeini, "the Possibility of Moral Responsibility in Artificial Intelligence: A Philosophical Explaination of the Responsibility Gap," Journal of Philosophical Investigations, (2026): -, doi: 10.22034/jpiut.2026.70724.4376
VANCOUVER
Firoozbakht, S., Shahraeini, S. M. the Possibility of Moral Responsibility in Artificial Intelligence: A Philosophical Explaination of the Responsibility Gap. Journal of Philosophical Investigations, 2026; (): -. doi: 10.22034/jpiut.2026.70724.4376
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