Informed Digital Consent for Use of AI Systems Grounded in a Model of Sexual Consent

Artificial intelligence (AI) systems shape our infospheres, mediating our interactions and defining what information we have access to. This poses a tremendous threat to individual autonomy and impacts society, both online and offline. Users are often unaware of the potential impacts of using these systems, and companies that utilise them are not incentivised to adequately inform their users of those impacts. Forms of digital design ethics, including pro-ethical design and tolerant paternalism, have been proposed to help protect user autonomy, but are not sufficient to ensure that users are educated enough to make informed decisions. In this paper, I use sexual consent as defined by American universities to outline and propose ways to implement a model of “informed digital consent” that would ensure that users are well-informed so that their autonomy is not only respected, but enhanced.