The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence and Robotization in Tourism and Hospitality - A Conceptual Framework and Research Agenda

Abstract

The impacts that AI and robotics systems can and will have on our everyday lives are already making themselves manifest. However, there is a lack of research on the ethical impacts and means for amelioration regarding AI and robotics within tourism and hospitality. Given the importance of designing technologies that cross national boundaries, and given that the tourism and hospitality industry is fundamentally predicated on multicultural interactions, this is an area of research and application that requires particular attention. Specifically, tourism and hospitality have a range of context-unique stakeholders that need to be accounted for in the salient design of AI systems is to be achieved. This paper adopts a stakeholder approach to develop the conceptual framework to centralize human values in designing and deploying AI and robotics systems in tourism and hospitality. The conceptual framework includes several layers-'Human-human-AI' interaction level, direct and indirect stakeholders, and the macroenvironment. The ethical issues on each layer are outlined as well as some possible solutions to them. Additionally, the paper develops a research agenda on the topic.

Full text

Journal of Smart Tourism Vol. 1 No. 4 (2021) 9-18
ⓒ 2021 by Smart Tourism Research Center. All rights reserved
DOI: https://doi.org/10.52255/smarttourism.2021.1.4.3
*Corresponding author:
Stanislav Ivanov, Varna University of Management, Varna, Bulgaria
E-mail address: stanislav.ivanov@vumk.eu; info@zangador.institute
Received 18 October 2021; Received in revised form 20 December 2021; Accepted 22 December 2021
Conceptual Article
The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence and Robotization in Tourism and Hospitality
– A Conceptual Framework and Research Agenda
Stanislav Ivanova,b* and Steven Umbrelloc
a Varna University of Management, Varna, Bulgaria
b Zangador Research Institute, Varna, Bulgaria
c Department of Values, Technology, & Innovation, School of Technology, Policy & Management, Technical University Delft, Delft, The Netherlands
Abstract




  

    


Keywords

1. Introduction
       





         

         
         

          


       


      



 


      





          

       
       
     

      

       
        

       

 
       
        



          
      



Journal of Smart Tourism
      

Ivanov and Umbrello
Journal of Smart Tourism Vol. 1 No. 4 (2021) 9-18
10

  
a
b
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
         

  

   
 
         
  

       
          
       

      
       
     
     

         
        
        
  
       
       




         

         
       




         
      
 
 

  
          

  



2. Literature Review
2.1. AI and Robotics Ethics



AI
and Ethics  




          


           




Fig. 1. 
2.1.1 Privacy and Surveillance
      

           
          






2.1.2 Manipulation of Behavior
         


        

        
     

        
        
     

2.1.3 The Opacity of AI Systems



           
        
       
      

    

Ivanov and Umbrello
Journal of Smart Tourism Vol. 1 No. 4 (2021) 9-18
11
        
         
  


          


2.1.4 Autonomous Systems
      

       
       
       

         
         
        


 
       


  

        

2.1.5 Bias in Decision Systems
        
          


           

        
          

        
       


      


2.1.6 Human-Robot Interaction
 
      
         

       
         
       
        
       
       
       
       

         
       
       

2.1.7 Automation and Employment
       
         

 
   
       

per se
         


     

        

       






        
      

2.1.8 Other: Machine Ethics, Artificial Moral Agents, Singularity
   
        

        
         


        
          
  

       
        

         


        


      

        
       


2.2. AI and Robotics Ethics in Tourism and Hospitality
 
         
       

Ivanov and Umbrello
Journal of Smart Tourism Vol. 1 No. 4 (2021) 9-18
12



           

        
         

       
        
         

      


          
         
     


        
        


3. The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence and Robotization in
Tourism and Hospitality – A Conceptual Framework
       

        
      





        

          
          
  
         
         
       


     

Fig. 2.
3.1. Direct Stakeholders


        
        

       

Ivanov and Umbrello
Journal of Smart Tourism Vol. 1 No. 4 (2021) 9-18
13
 

 
 


         

     
      
        

Entirely human-delivered services

     
         

 AI in the back-of-house operations   
         



 AI in the front-of-house operations   
   
          

AI in both backfront-of-house operations

          
 
         


        
input
 
output
          


      algorithms   

       


        
        
 
        
     





3.1.1 Human Bias in Data Selection

         
        

  
 
         


          


3.1.2 Human Bias in Data Classification

        
        


    

       
 

3.1.3 Bias in Outputs
        
        

           
      
       
in situ






          
     
        


      
        

3.1.4 Technical and Contextual Biases

         
        
           




       



       Robots  
       
human-robot interaction

         

          

       
          


       

Ivanov and Umbrello
Journal of Smart Tourism Vol. 1 No. 4 (2021) 9-18
14


         
          
        
   
 
  
       


         


         
       
    privacy and surveillance 
       

 
   



      

    


             

        
      


        
        to
manipulate their behavior


  
 
         
        


       
         

substitution vs enhancement effect
        
       


        
         
        



         
 de facto       

  

     
          
   

          


 
         

usability

        
         

        
accessibility   whom
usability
  accessibility       
     

    


        

 Autonomy        


         
         
        
       

accessibility

 should       


        
        




          
       
 
          


       

       
       
          

3.2. Indirect Stakeholders
      
          
        
    

      

         
      

      
          

         

Ivanov and Umbrello
Journal of Smart Tourism Vol. 1 No. 4 (2021) 9-18
15

        

    respect for human autonomy
prevention of harm fairness  explicability  


     
      

        
        
          


 




       
          

 
  

 
 Henn na
Hotel         
          
       



           

        
 

        
        

 


       
          

        
         

         




        
        
        



 
per se     

       



       
          

        

3.3. Macroenvironment
       
  
        


 



 


        
 
       

        

        
       



      


        


         
  

4. Discussion and Conclusion
4.1 Implications

       

        
       for.  
     
 

       
    


          

 
 

   for      


         
      
       
          
   
      

Ivanov and Umbrello
Journal of Smart Tourism Vol. 1 No. 4 (2021) 9-18
16


    
       




         
           


 




         






       

       



        


        
         
        



        
  

 


4.2. Future Research Directions
      

      

     


       
        
        

4.2.1 Perceptions Towards the Ethical Issues
•        


•         

•       
       
  

4.2.2 Perception Towards the Solutions to the Ethical Issues
•          

• 
•         

•       
       
     
          

4.2.3 Stakeholder Collaboration
• 



• 
• 
          
         

4.2.4 Ethical AI and Robotization Outcomes
•           

•          
       

4.2.5 Artificial Moral Agents
•        
        

• 

        
        
         

        

Declaration of competing interests



Ivanov and Umbrello
Journal of Smart Tourism Vol. 1 No. 4 (2021) 9-18
17
ORCID iD
 
 
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Proceedings of the 29th AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence
     

 Our final invention: Artificial intelligence and the end of the
human era.
Paladyn,
Journal of Behavioral Robotics11

Minds and Machines30

The Service Industries Journal41
Superintelligence: Paths, dangers, strategies.

The Telegraph
      


      The second machine age: Work,
progress, and prosperity in a time of brilliant technologies.

        
 
Handbook of e-tourism

 Journal of Hospitality
and Tourism Technology10
         
International Journal of Social Robotics

 
Electronic Markets26
AI ethics.
          
Long Range Planning16
 Ethics and
Information Technology14
      Robot sex: Social and ethical
implications.

Journal of Macroeconomics49
    
   ROBONOMICS: The Journal of the Automated
Economy 1

    arXiv   


Journal of Evolutionary Economics23

 IEEE Technology
and Society Magazine40

     Science and Engineering Ethics
26
The technology trap: Capital, labor, and power in the age
of automation. 
       Value sensitive design: Shaping
technology with moral imagination
        ACM
Transactions on Information Systems14
    Rights for robots: Artificial intelligence, animal and
environmental law.
         
Annals of Tourism Research38
Robot rights
Ethics guidelines
for trustworthy AI. 
 

ISO 8373:2012(en)
Robots and robotic devices – Vocabulary

   
   
Information Technology and Tourism22
         
ROBONOMICS: The Journal of the Automated Economy,1
         
Technology in Society63
       Robots, artificial intelligence and
service automation in travel, tourism and hospitality.  

   
     
        
  Tourism Economics  

Justice and ethics in tourism  

       Tourism Review
75

        
Business Horizons 62

 AI
Ethics 
    The political economy of robots: Prospects for
prosperity and peace in the automated 21st century  



  
 European Journal of Tourism Research 25
        
     European Journal of
Information Systems
   
   The singularity is near. When humans transcend
biology. 
   Ethics for robots: How to design a moral algorithm

           
       
Journal of Hospitality Marketing  Management29


Artificial Intelligence175
Robot ethics: The ethical and
social implications of robotics.
         Robot ethics 2.0: From
autonomous cars to artificial intelligence.

       
    Journal of Retailing and
Consumer Services60
      The ethics of tourism: Critical and
applied perspectives
        Annals of
Tourism Research32
   The ethics of surveillance: An introduction. 

       
Futures,90
           
       
European Journal of Tourism Research20
          
          
Journal of Management Analytics
6

        
Proceedings of the 2020 International Conferences on Internet of Things

Ivanov and Umbrello
Journal of Smart Tourism Vol. 1 No. 4 (2021) 9-18
18
(iThings) and IEEE Green Computing and Communications (GreenCom)
and IEEE Cyber, Physical and Social Computing (CPSCom) and IEEE
Smart Data (SmartData) and IEEE Congress on Cybermatics
(Cybermatics)


Robots and robotics: principles, systems, and
industrial applications

  The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy  
     



Robots, artificial intelligence and service
automation in travel, tourism and hospitality   

          
        
 European Journal of Tourism Research 26

Journal
of Smart Tourism1
          
      Journal of Global
Health 9
    Intersectional automations: robotics, AI,
algorithms, and Equity.

     European Journal of
Tourism Research 

       
Frontiers in Robotics and AI 8
 Artificial intelligence: A modern approach


           
Journal of Tourism Futures

 ROBONOMICS:
The Journal of the Automated Economy 2
  Forbes.

   
   
BBC
   
    Military robots and drones: A reference handbook

            
     IEEE Security 
Privacy16
          
 ROBONOMICS: The Journal of the Automated Economy 2
           
Journal of
Hospitality and Tourism Insights2
Nudge: Improving decisions about health,
wealth and happiness
           
   International Journal of Contemporary
Hospitality Management30
            
       Annals of
Tourism Research 84
      
        
      Annals of Tourism
Research 81

Annals of Tourism Research 78
        
 HUMANA. MENTE Journal of Philosophical Studies 13

 
AI & SOCIETY
35

AI and Ethics1

 Information 12

        
    International Journal of Social
Robotics
Global code of ethics
for tourism.       


      Designing in
ethics
Autonomous vehicles. 


   ision-21. Interdisciplinary Science and
Engineering in the Era of Cyberspace: Proceedings of a symposium
sponsored by NASA Lewis Research Center and the Ohio Aerospace
Institute
         
ROBONOMICS: The Journal of the Automated Economy1

   
   ROBONOMICS: The Journal of the Automated
Economy,2
 Moral machines: Teaching robots right from
wrong.
ROBONOMICS:
The Journal of the Automated Economy1
           
Journal of Tourism Futures6
The age of surveillance capitalism. The fight for a human
future at the new frontier of power.
Author Biographies
Stanislav Ivanov       


         
European Journal of Tourism Research  
ROBONOMICS: The Journal of the Automated Economy
    
   
        Annals of
Tourism ResearchTourism Management, Technology in Society, 


Steven Umbrello        

          
      
        

