Can AI be a moral victim? The role of moral patiency and ownership perceptions in ethical judgments of using AI-generated content
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arXiv
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| Autori principali: | , |
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| Natura: | Preprint |
| Pubblicazione: |
2026
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| _version_ | 1866917448121319424 |
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| author | Choung, Hyesun Kim, Soojong |
| author_facet | Choung, Hyesun Kim, Soojong |
| contents | The growing use of generative AI raises ethical concerns about authorship and plagiarism. This study examines how people judge the reuse of AI-generated content, focusing on moral patiency and ownership perceptions. In an experiment, participants evaluated two substantively similar manuscripts in which the original source was described as authored by a human, an AI system, or an AI agent with a human-like name. Results showed that copying AI-generated work was judged less unethical, less plagiaristic, and less guilt-inducing than copying human-authored work. Mediation analyses revealed that this leniency stemmed from lower perceptions of AI's capacity to suffer harm (moral patiency) and greater ownership attributed to the human writer reusing AI-generated content. Anthropomorphic cues shaped moral evaluations indirectly by reducing perceived ownership. These findings shed light on how people morally disengage when using AI-generated work and highlight differences in how ethical judgments are applied to human versus AI-created content. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_26956 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Can AI be a moral victim? The role of moral patiency and ownership perceptions in ethical judgments of using AI-generated content Choung, Hyesun Kim, Soojong Computers and Society Artificial Intelligence Human-Computer Interaction The growing use of generative AI raises ethical concerns about authorship and plagiarism. This study examines how people judge the reuse of AI-generated content, focusing on moral patiency and ownership perceptions. In an experiment, participants evaluated two substantively similar manuscripts in which the original source was described as authored by a human, an AI system, or an AI agent with a human-like name. Results showed that copying AI-generated work was judged less unethical, less plagiaristic, and less guilt-inducing than copying human-authored work. Mediation analyses revealed that this leniency stemmed from lower perceptions of AI's capacity to suffer harm (moral patiency) and greater ownership attributed to the human writer reusing AI-generated content. Anthropomorphic cues shaped moral evaluations indirectly by reducing perceived ownership. These findings shed light on how people morally disengage when using AI-generated work and highlight differences in how ethical judgments are applied to human versus AI-created content. |
| title | Can AI be a moral victim? The role of moral patiency and ownership perceptions in ethical judgments of using AI-generated content |
| topic | Computers and Society Artificial Intelligence Human-Computer Interaction |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.26956 |