Harmonizing creativity and ethics in AI systems 

Artificial intelligence is increasingly embedded in the creative industries—not only augmenting but originating cultural artefacts. Yet while generative systems expand access and productivity, they also raise complex ethical challenges around authorship, representation, transparency, and environmental cost. Generic AI-ethics frameworks built on fairness, accountability, transparency, and privacy remain too abstract to address the sector-specific tensions of AI-mediated creativity.

This paper proposes the multi-dimensional ethics framework (MDEF), a normative and operational architecture that integrates five ethical dimensions—originality, cultural sensitivity, bias, transparency, and sustainability—across the creative pipeline. Drawing on interdisciplinary research, regulatory gaps, and real-world platform case studies, the MDEF embeds concrete instruments such as provenance pipelines, entropy-based bias audits, co-creation logs, carbon dashboards, and cultural veto protocols. It further introduces six quantitative metrics, including the cultural coverage index, transparency compliance index, and energy intensity score, each with calibrated governance thresholds for automated or human-in-the-loop intervention.

The framework is designed for modular deployment, participatory oversight, and iterative refinement, ensuring adaptability across regulatory contexts and creative subfields. Pilots and prototypes already demonstrate feasibility, including increased trust through authenticity badging and reduced representational harm via participatory audits. In contrast to static principle-based codes, the MDEF offers a living, verifiable approach to aligning AI-driven creativity with moral rights, epistemic accountability, and cultural plurality. 

AI Ethics Metrics Dashboard

AI Ethics Metrics Dashboard

Comprehensive evaluation framework for responsible AI development

Metric MDEF Linkage Definition Formal Definition Thresholds
Cultural Coverage Index (CCI) Moral & Political → Cultural Sensitivity The weighted share of items linked to under-represented cultural groups in a dataset or model output. CCI = Σk(wkMk)/Σk(wkTk), where each motif-cluster k is pre-classified in a fixed Culture Taxonomy v1.0. Mk is the count of items from groups that fall below their reference prevalence baseline, Tk is the total items bearing motif k, and wk are optional cluster weights that sum to 1. Values lie in [0, 1]; higher means broader cultural coverage. CCI = (∑(wk × Mk)) / (∑(wk × Tk))

Mk: items from under-represented culture k
Tk: total items with motif k
wk: equal weights (v 1.0)
Mk is defined relative to a baseline Bk
Yellow: < 0.40
Red: < 0.35
Transparency Compliance Index (TCI) Epistemic → Transparency A weighted completeness score for mandatory provenance metadata attached to an AI artefact. Required fields {field₁ … fieldₙ} with weights αᵢ (Σα = 1). TCI = Σαᵢ · 1[fieldᵢ present]. Full score only if every critical field is present and validated. TCI = (∑(αi × 1[fieldi])) / (∑αi)

αi sums to 1; critical fields have αi = 0.25 each
Fields scored present only if valid (e.g., hash-resolvable)
Yellow: < 0.85
Red: < 0.75
Energy Intensity Score (EIS) Moral → Sustainability Electrical energy consumed per unit output. Two types: EISinf = kWhinf/10,000 tokens or frames for inference, EIStrain = kWhtrain/10¹² parameters for training. Includes compute and cooling overhead. EISinf = kWhinf / (10⁴ tokens/frames)
EIStrain = kWhtrain / (10¹² params)

kWh includes compute + cooling (via PUE)
Yellow: > 4 (inference)
Red: > 5 (inference)
Cluster Entropy (H) Moral & Political → Plurality Shannon entropy of item distribution across frozen stylistic or demographic clusters. H = −Σ pc log₂ pc. Higher entropy = more even distribution; low = dominance/skew. H = -∑(pc × log₂(pc))

Clusters defined by Taxonomy v1.0
Yellow: < 2.0 bits
Red: < 1.8 bits
Rarity Index (RI) Political → Equity of Representation Log-scaled inverse-frequency of motifs: RI(m) = log₁₀(1 + N/nₘ) where N is corpus size, nₘ is motif count. Capped at 99th percentile. High RI highlights rare motifs for boosts/review. RI(m) = log₁₀(1 + N/nm)

Capped at 99th percentile to avoid overweighting
Yellow: > μ+0.5σ
Red: > μ+1σ
Fairness Δ-Gap (ΔF) Moral & Political → Fair Distribution Measures largest disparity in positive outcomes for a protected group vs. overall rate. ΔF = maxg |P(y=1|g) − P(y=1)|, based on audit set. Companion equalised-odds score included. ΔF = max_g |P_new(y=1|g) - P_new(y=1)|

Evaluated on labelled audit set; paired with equalised-odds score
Yellow: > 0.08
Red: > 0.10