Algorithms and Authenticity

As technology advances, artificially intelligent algorithms are becoming increasingly capable of human work. Across four experiments, I investigate people’s beliefs about the authenticity of algorithmic work, compared with human work. People believe algorithmic work is less authentic than human work because they believe it exhibits comparatively less moral authenticity, or sincerity relevant to a specific category (Experiments 1 and 2). However, people do not distinguish between human and algorithmic work when it comes to type authenticity, or accuracy when it comes to representing a specific category. Because of these authenticity attributions, people also believe algorithms’ characteristically moral decisions are relatively less ethical than identical human decisions (Experiment 3). To address these perceptions, organizations can increase algorithms’ seeming authenticity by highlighting human involvement in their creation or training processes (Experiment 4). I discuss implications given the increasing prevalence of automation.