The rapid development of artificial intelligence has ignited hope that it will help us solve many of the world's most difficult problems. However, there are many concerns about the power of artificial intelligence, and more and more people believe that the use of artificial intelligence should be guided to avoid infringement of our rights.

Many groups have discussed how artificial intelligence should be developed or deployed and have proposed ethical guidelines: The Society of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), a global professional engineer organization, has released a 280-page document (I also participated in the writing), and the EU has also published its own framework. The Global List of Artificial Intelligence Ethical Codes brings together more than 160 such codes worldwide.

Unfortunately, most of these guidelines are formulated by groups or organizations focused on North America and Europe: A survey released by social scientist Anna Yobin and colleagues showed that there are 21 cases in the United States, 19 cases in the EU, 13 cases in the UK, 4 cases in Japan, and 1 case in the United Arab Emirates, India, Singapore and South Korea each.

The guidelines reflect the values of the makers. Most AI ethical norms are formulated by Western countries, which means that the field is dominated by Western values, such as respect for autonomy and individual rights, especially the few norms issued by other countries also mostly reflect Western values.

There may be similarities in the norms formulated by different countries, because some values are indeed universal. However, to make these norms truly reflect the views of people in non-Western countries, it is also necessary to reflect the traditional value systems in the cultures of various countries.

Artificial intelligence ethics groups are repeating a typical mistake in society, and too many committees and advisory committees are still mainly composed of people from Europe and the United States.

People from the East and the West need to share their own ideas and consider other people's views to enrich their own opinions. Since artificial intelligence is developed and used all over the world, our thinking about it should also draw on all major ideological traditions.

With this in mind, I think that insights derived from Buddhist doctrines can not only benefit researchers in artificial intelligence ethics in traditional Buddhist cultural areas (mainly in the East, especially in Southeast Asia), but also benefit researchers in other parts of the world.

Buddhism proposes an ethical way of thinking, with the premise that all sentient beings want to stay away from suffering. Therefore, the Buddha taught us that if an act can relieve one's pain, it is good.

The implication of this doctrine for AI is that any ethical application of AI must be committed to reducing pain. In other words, facial recognition technology, for example, should be used only if it can be proven to reduce pain or improve well-being. Furthermore, the goal should be to relieve pain for everyone—not just those who interact directly with AI.

Of course, we can interpret this goal broadly, including improving unsatisfactory systems or processes, or making any situation better. It is obviously immoral to use technology to discriminate against others, or to monitor or oppress others. When there is a gray area or the nature of the impact is unclear, the burden of proof should be borne by those who attempt to prove that a certain AI application will not cause harm.

The Buddhist-inspired ethics of artificial intelligence also believe that practicing these principles requires self-cultivation. This means that those involved in AI work should constantly train themselves to get closer to the goal of completely eliminating pain. Whether the goal can be achieved is not that important, what is important is that they have to put it into practice to achieve it. Practice itself is the key.

Designers and programmers should practice this philosophy by clarifying this goal and developing specific steps for their work so that the products they develop can reflect this ideal. That is, the artificial intelligence they develop must be designed to help the public eliminate pain and improve well-being.

To achieve all this, companies and government agencies that develop or use artificial intelligence must be responsible to the public. Responsibility is also part of Buddhist doctrine, and in the context of artificial intelligence ethics, it requires effective legal and political mechanisms and judicial independence. These elements are crucial for any AI ethical norms to work as expected.

Another core concept in Buddhism is compassion, the desire and determination to eliminate the suffering of others. Compassion also requires self-cultivation, which means that in Buddhist ethics, harmful behaviors such as using power to oppress others have no place to stand. Practicing Buddhist ethics does not necessarily mean becoming a monk, but one must cultivate oneself and be compassionate in daily life.

We can find that the values advocated by Buddhism—including responsibility, justice, and compassion—are mostly the same as those in other ethical traditions. This is expected, after all, we are all human beings. The difference is that Buddhism argues these values in different ways, perhaps emphasizing self-cultivation.

Buddhism can provide many inspirations for all those who think about the application of technology ethics, including those who focus on the ethics of artificial intelligence. I think so too many other non-Western value systems. The ethical norms of artificial intelligence should be drawn from the rich and diverse ideas in many cultures around the world to reflect more diverse traditions and concepts in dealing with ethical issues. In this way, the future of this technology will be brighter. (Author: Suraj Honladalong, Professor of Philosophy, Centre for Science, Technology and Social Studies, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand)