Most Recent Publication
Clancy, R., Zhu, Q., & Majumdar, S. (2025). Exploring AI ethics in the global context: A culturally responsive, psychological realist approach. AI & Ethics.​ Advance Online Publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43681-025-00821-6
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​​AI is a global technology with tremendous potential consequences. As such, it is important that AI technologies be developed and implemented in an ethical manner, which depends on understanding and responding to global, cross-cultural ethical perspectives. Unfortunately, on the one hand, many AI ethics initiatives reflect cultural biases, as they are often grounded in ethical values, principles, and frameworks that may not fully capture the diversity of global populations. On the other hand, current attempts to debias AI face challenges, as they are often based on unrealistic psychological assumptions about how people think about and behave regarding AI and ethics. Instead, we argue that a culturally responsive, psychologically realist approach to AI ethics is needed for the responsible advancement and adoption of AI in global contexts. Such an approach depends on understanding how people from diverse backgrounds think about issues of right and wrong and behave (psychologically realist), and how culture affects these judgments and behaviors (culturally responsive). This can be achieved by using empirical insights and methodologies from the behavioral and social sciences associated with moral psychology.
Who We Are
The Laboratory for Normative & Cultural Studies of Emerging Technologies (LANCSET) at Virginia Tech is an open and inclusive community of scholars committed to critically engaging with emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotics, and quantum computing through ethical, cultural, and societal lenses. Our work is grounded in the belief that technologies are not neutral; they are shaped by and, in turn, shape the values, norms, and cultures of the societies in which they are developed and deployed.

​Normative Focus
We examine the ethical shaping and governance of technological development and deployment, investigating how responsibility, human flourishing, ethics literacy, and research security are enacted throughout the lifecycle of emerging technologies.

Cultural Focus
​Our cultural lens explores the values already embedded in technological and professional education systems and the ways their adoption reshapes practices, identities, and meanings. ​
​​If you are interested in exploring potential collaboration opportunities, please visit the Contact Us page to leave a message or send us an email. We thank you for your interest in our work and look forward to collaborating with you!