Sincerity as ethical alignment to reconstruct the moral foundation of AI ethics

Toru Iwao; Yusuke Nemoto; Nico Surantha; Kenji Suzuki; Akiko Takahashi; Masakazu Ito; Yoshifumi Zoka; Toru Amau · 2026 · AI & Society background low priority coded

Main argument

Thesis: AI ethics' FAT framing (fairness, accountability, transparency) is procedural and compliance-driven, missing a meta-ethical enabling condition: SINCERITY - 'the alignment of truth, intention, action, and trust' - developed (via integrity, relational responsibility, narrative self-understanding, deliberative communication, Deweyan inquiry) into a Sincerity-Based Ethical Framework for governance that treats ethics as reflexive learning from inconsistencies; sincerity regulates the human and institutional actors who design/deploy/oversee AI, functioning as a 'revision regulator' clarifying when FAT mechanisms should be reconsidered and how revisions are publicly justified.

Why it matters here

Japanese team proposing SINCERITY (alignment of truth, intention, action, trust) as the missing meta-ethical enabling condition beneath FAT-style procedural ethics - governance as reflexive 'learning from inconsistencies' with a revision regulator. Value: a non-Western-inflected framework centered on institutional actors' reflexivity, and another statement that principle-lists lack a coherence layer.

Reading notes

Compact treatment. Abstract read. Note: sincerity (makoto/sei) framing has Japanese ethical resonances the paper underplays - possible cross-cultural thread node.

Iwao, T., et al. (2026). Sincerity as ethical alignment to reconstruct the moral foundation of AI ethics. AI & Society.

Close reading — 1 coded units

#1 · pp. 1 · claim

“a meta-ethical enabling condition of coherence and sincerity, defined as the alignment of truth, intention, action, and trust, is missing. [...] Sincerity is treated as a regulatory orientation for human and institutional actors who design, deploy, and oversee AI systems. [...] the proposed SBEF serves as a revision regulator that clarifies when FAT-style mechanisms should be reconsidered and how such revisions can be publicly justified.”

RL-INST VC-THICK ?

Synthesis-matrix row

complicates T6-RESPONSIBILITY-UNALLOCATED

sincerity condition on governance actors - orientation, not allocation

complicates T8-NONWESTERN-CONCEDED

Japanese-inflected sincerity framework - a response instance

Memos (1)

comparison · unit #1

Two uses: (a) another independent 'principles lists lack a coherence/justification layer' argument (with Jobin/Mittelstadt lineage), here solved by a virtue-like meta-condition on INSTITUTIONAL actors rather than systems - convergent with Brophy's process-virtues and the sincerity/faithfulness thread (S&K's wise judge); (b) cross-cultural datapoint: a Japanese team's framework built on a concept (sincerity/makoto) with Confucian-Japanese ethical resonance - modest but real evidence for the non-Western-frameworks thread alongside the Ubuntu concessions.