Practical Judgment, Virtue, and Intuition in the Use of Opaque AI-Enabled Systems

2026-07-14 · Source: Artificial Intelligence · Field: Technology & Digital — Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning, Robotics & Autonomous Systems · Depth: Expert, quick

Summary

The article "Practical Judgment, Virtue, and Intuition in the Use of Opaque AI-Enabled Systems" addresses concerns arising from the increasing deployment of "black box" AI systems that augment autonomy across various domains. It argues that issues like reliability, control, and ethical compliance, stemming from AI opacity, can be mitigated by emphasizing distinctly human capabilities: practical judgment, virtue, and intuition. The authors contend that focusing on these non-quantifiable human traits provides a bridge between practical challenges and underlying ethical, legal, and social norms. This necessitates developing training regimens and guidelines for AI deployment anchored in humanistic values, exemplified by the military domain, though the arguments apply broadly.

Key takeaway

For policy makers and organizational leaders deploying opaque AI-enabled systems, recognize that purely technical or quantifiable metrics are insufficient for ensuring ethical and reliable operation. You should actively integrate non-quantifiable humanistic values, such as practical judgment, virtue, and intuition, into your training programs and operational guidelines. This approach will help bridge the gap between AI's technical opacity and critical ethical, legal, and social norms, fostering more trustworthy and controllable AI integration across domains.

Key insights

Human judgment, virtue, and intuition can mitigate opacity concerns in AI-enabled systems.

Principles

• Human capabilities bridge AI opacity challenges with ethical norms.
• Positive human traits are often non-quantifiable.
• AI deployment guidelines need humanistic, non-quantifiable values.

Method

Develop training regimens and guidelines for AI deployment that are anchored in humanistic but non-quantifiable values, recognizing their role in ethical decision-making.

In practice

• Integrate practical judgment into AI operational training.
• Anchor AI deployment guidelines in virtue ethics.
• Emphasize human intuition in AI-assisted decision processes.

Topics

• Opaque AI Systems
• AI Ethics
• Human Judgment
• Virtue Ethics
• AI Autonomy
• Human-Computer Interaction

Best for: AI Ethicist, Policy Maker, Research Scientist

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Editorial summary, takeaway, and curation by AIssential. Original article published by Artificial Intelligence.