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@ARTICLE{Heinrichs:902025,
author = {Heinrichs, Jan-Hendrik},
title = {{W}hy {D}igital {A}ssistants {N}eed {Y}our {I}nformation to
{S}upport {Y}our {A}utonomy},
journal = {Philosophy $\&$ technology},
volume = {34},
issn = {2210-5433},
address = {Heidelberg]},
publisher = {Springer},
reportid = {FZJ-2021-03983},
pages = {1687–1705},
year = {2021},
abstract = {This article investigates how human life is conceptualized
in the design and use of digital assistants and how this
conceptualization feeds back into the life really lived. It
suggests that a specific way of conceptualizing human life
— namely as a set of tasks to be optimized — is
responsible for the much-criticized information hunger of
these digital assistants. The data collection of digital
assistants raises not just several issues of privacy, but
also the potential for improving people’s degree of
self-determination, because the optimization model of daily
activity is genuinely suited to a certain mode of
self-determination, namely the explicit and reflective
setting, pursuing, and monitoring of goals. Furthermore,
optimization systems’ need for generation and analysis of
data overcomes one of the core weaknesses in human
capacities for self-determination, namely problems with
objective and quantitative self-assessment. It will be
argued that critiques according to which digital assistants
threaten to reduce their users’ autonomy tend to ignore
that the risks to autonomy are derivative to potential gains
in autonomy. These critiques are based on an overemphasis of
a success conception of autonomy. Counter to this
conception, being autonomous does not require a choice
environment that exclusively supports a person’s
“true” preferences, but the opportunity to engage with
external influences, supportive as well as adverse. In
conclusion, it will be argued that ethical evaluations of
digital assistants should consider potential gains as well
as potential risks for autonomy caused by the use of digital
assistants.},
cin = {INM-8},
ddc = {500},
cid = {I:(DE-Juel1)INM-8-20090406},
pnm = {5255 - Neuroethics and Ethics of Information (POF4-525)},
pid = {G:(DE-HGF)POF4-5255},
typ = {PUB:(DE-HGF)16},
doi = {10.1007/s13347-021-00481-4},
url = {https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/902025},
}