AI Ethics Canvas: A graphical tool to design and deploy ethical artificial intelligence for public administrations

Abstract

This article presents the AI Ethics Canvas: a graphical tool to guide public administrations in mainstreaming ethics in the development, deployment, and monitoring of artificial intelligence (AI) tools for their own everyday use. Our canvas is the result of an action-research effort conducted within the scope of a project involving the Autonomous Province of Trento (PAT), Italy. We initially developed it based on existing ethical and legal frameworks. Then, we conducted qualitative interviews with PAT functionaries and technologists developing software on behalf of the PAT to ensure the canvas’s content was clear and applicable to public administration work. While originally elaborated for the PAT, the canvas presented is applicable to all public administrations within the European Union who wish to adopt AI in their operations, as it references to core European legislation such as General Data Protection Regulation, AI Act, Data Act, and Data Governance Act. The article presents the AI Ethics Canvas both as a final product and in its creation process to enhance transparency in AI ethics tool development.