LLMs beyond the lab: the ethics and epistemics of real-world AI research

Research under real-world conditions is crucial to the development and deployment of robust AI systems. Exposing large language models to complex use settings yields knowledge about their performance and impact, which cannot be obtained under controlled laboratory conditions or through anticipatory methods. This epistemic need for real-world research is exacerbated by large-language models’ opaque internal operations and potential for emergent behavior. However, despite its epistemic value and widespread application, the ethics of real-world AI research has received little scholarly attention. To address this gap, this paper provides an analysis of real-world research with LLMs and generative AI, assessing both its epistemic value and ethical concerns such as the potential for interpersonal and societal research harms, the increased privatization of AI learning, and the unjust distribution of benefits and risks. This paper discusses these concerns alongside four moral principles influencing research ethics standards: non-maleficence, beneficence, respect for autonomy, and distributive justice. I argue that real-world AI research faces challenges in meeting these principles and that these challenges are exacerbated by absent or imperfect current ethical governance. Finally, I chart two distinct but compatible ways forward: through ethical compliance and regulation and through moral education and cultivation.