The Potential and Limitations of Artificial Colleagues

Abstract This article assesses the potential of artificial colleagues to help us realise the goods of collegial relationships and discusses its practical implications. In speaking of artificial colleagues, it refers to AI-based agential systems in the workplace. The article proceeds in three steps. First, it develops a comprehensive account of the goods of collegial relationships. It argues that, in addition to goods at the individual level, collegial relationships can provide valuable goods at the social level. Second, it argues that artificial colleagues are limited in their capacity to realise the goods of collegial relationships: at the individual level, they can at best realise some such goods, and at the social level, they can at best support their realisation. This contradicts Nyholm and Smids’ (2020) claim that robots can be good colleagues. The article traces these limitations to particular features of artificial colleagues and discusses to what extent they would hold for radically advanced systems. Third, the article examines the policy implications of these findings. It highlights how the introduction of artificial colleagues, in addition to potentially crowding out human colleagues, will likely impact relations among human colleagues. And it proposes a governance principle that gives strict priority to human collegial relationships.