While Apple CEO Tim Cook believes “the future is responsible innovation,” management scholars warned of a trend of “responsibility washing” nearly a decade ago. Time, unfortunately, has proven them right. Over the past few months, generative AI tools such as ChatGPT have become the latest technology to raise concerns of responsibility washing.
Much like greenwashing tarnished sustainability efforts before the establishment of standards and norms (such as the ISO 14001 environmental management standards), responsible innovation (RI) is threatened by responsibility washing.
