cs.CYApr 3, 2026

Can AI be a moral victim? The role of moral patiency and ownership perceptions in ethical judgments of using AI-generated content

Authors: Hyesun Choung, Soojong Kim

Organizations: Brian Lamb School of Communication, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, USA · Department of Communication, University of California, Davis, Davis, California, USA

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Abstract

The growing use of generative AI raises ethical concerns about authorship and plagiarism. This study examines how people judge the reuse of AI-generated content, focusing on moral patiency and ownership perceptions. In an experiment, participants evaluated two substantively similar manuscripts in which the original source was described as authored by a human, an AI system, or an AI agent with a human-like name. Results showed that copying AI-generated work was judged less unethical, less plagiaristic, and less guilt-inducing than copying human-authored work. Mediation analyses revealed that this leniency stemmed from lower perceptions of AI's capacity to suffer harm (moral patiency) and greater ownership attributed to the human writer reusing AI-generated content. Anthropomorphic cues shaped moral evaluations indirectly by reducing perceived ownership. These findings shed light on how people morally disengage when using AI-generated work and highlight differences in how ethical judgments are applied to human versus AI-created content.

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