Bringing AI (Artificial Intelligence) Under Critical CSR Scrutiny: A Critical CSR Assessment of Major AI Companies’ Communication of Responsible AI

Gaylord National 

This paper examines major AI companies' corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication of responsible artificial intelligence (AI). AI companies deliberately avoid defining their communication on responsible AI as CSR to avoid their social responsibility towards their affected publics, but this paper argues that these communications require CSR scrutiny. Guided by critical theory approaches in public relations literature (corporate historical responsibility (CHR), corporate responsibility to race (CRR), and critical humanism for public relations), a qualitative textual analysis of the blog posts of four major AI companies (Google, Meta, Microsoft, and OpenAI) revealed several strategic choices these companies have made when communicating responsible AI, which did not acknowledge their historical injustice and excluded historically-marginalized publics. Recommendations for future CSR communication of responsible AI included ensuring the direct engagement of affected publics and explicitly acknowledging historical injustice.