The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence and Its Implications for Employment in Nigeria

This study examines the ethical dimensions of artificial intelligence deployment and its implications for employment and economic rights in Nigeria, with particular focus on the financial services and manufacturing sectors in Lagos and Kano. Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming labour markets globally, and philosophical analysis of the moral obligations that corporations and governments bear toward workers displaced by automation is urgently needed in the Nigerian context. Using a descriptive philosophical design, the study engages with the ethics of technological change through the frameworks of John Stuart Mill's utilitarianism, Kantian duties of respect for persons, and Ubuntu relational ethics, supplemented by secondary philosophical literature on AI ethics published between 2020 and 2024. Structured interviews with 20 technology economists, labour rights activists, and philosophy academics in Lagos and Kano inform the primary data. Findings reveal that the deployment of AI in Nigerian banking and manufacturing has proceeded without adequate ethical scrutiny of the consequences for workers, and that the utilitarian justifications offered by corporations, citing efficiency gains, do not adequately account for the distributional consequences for the least advantaged. The study argues that Kantian ethics imposes a duty of proactive support for affected workers. Recommendations include mandatory AI impact assessments incorporating philosophical ethics criteria before major technological deployments. Keywords: AI ethics, employment, technology philosophy, Nigeria, Kantian duties.