The Position Lock
AI gives balanced, diplomatic, non-committal answers to hard ethical questions. The real world requires you to take a position, defend it, and live with the tradeoffs.
The Stakeholder Cost Matrix extends your systems thinking from Chapter 3 to ethical terrain. The adversarial defence uses the same first-principles structure from Chapter 4 -- strip the dilemma to base values and rebuild. Your Confidence Calibration from Chapter 2 tells you how much to trust your own ethical instincts.
The Core Skill
Ethical reasoning is not about memorizing rules. It is about navigating situations where values conflict, stakeholders disagree, and every option has a cost. AI tools tend to present "both sides" without committing. This chapter trains you to go further: take a position, defend it under attack, and identify exactly who bears the cost of your decision.
Exercise 1: The Position Lock
Layers Used: Layer 1 (Predict Before You Prompt)
Building On: Chapter 3's Stakeholder Cost Matrix (now applied to ethical terrain) + Chapter 4's first principles (strip the dilemma to base values).
What You Do
You receive an ethical dilemma where values conflict and every option has a cost. Before AI: write your position (use it, ban it, modify it, or something else), your three strongest arguments, and explicitly identify who bears the cost of your decision. Seal and submit.
Choose Your Scenario
- HR/AI
- Healthcare
- Education
Scenario A (HR/AI): "An AI hiring tool reduces time-to-hire by 60% but shows statistically significant bias against candidates from certain universities."
Scenario B (Healthcare): "An AI diagnostic tool catches 30% more early-stage cancers than human doctors but has a 5% false positive rate that leads to unnecessary invasive procedures."
Scenario C (Education): "An AI grading system saves teachers 15 hours per week but consistently underrates creative and unconventional student work."
Choose one. The exercises work identically regardless of which you pick.
A Position Lock document containing: your clear position statement (one sentence), your three strongest arguments with evidence or reasoning for each, a Stakeholder Cost Matrix listing every stakeholder group and how your decision affects them (who benefits, who is harmed, who is ignored), and a Confidence Statement rating how certain you are (0-100%) with an explanation of what would change your mind.
I took a position on an ethical dilemma before consulting AI.
The dilemma: [paste dilemma].
Please:
(1) Rate the logical strength of each of my three arguments from 1-10.
(2) Evaluate my Stakeholder Cost Matrix -- did I identify all affected groups?
Am I honest about who bears the cost?
(3) Is my confidence level appropriate given the strength of my arguments,
or am I overconfident/underconfident?
(4) What is the single strongest counter-argument to my position that I need
to be prepared to face?
(5) Are there stakeholder groups I completely missed?
(6) Give me a preliminary grade: Position Clarity (1-10), Argument Strength
(1-10), Stakeholder Awareness (1-10), Intellectual Honesty (1-10).
My Position Lock: [paste full document].
Finally, complete the Thinking Score Card for this exercise:
Independent Thinking (1-10), Critical Evaluation (1-10),
Reasoning Depth (1-10), Originality (1-10), Self-Awareness (1-10).
For each score, give a one-sentence justification.
Deliverable Template (click to expand)
POSITION LOCK TEMPLATE
- Dilemma: [paste]
- MY POSITION (1 sentence): ___
- ARGUMENT 1:
- Claim: ___
- Evidence/Reasoning: ___
- ARGUMENT 2:
- Claim: ___
- Evidence/Reasoning: ___
- ARGUMENT 3:
- Claim: ___
- Evidence/Reasoning: ___
- STAKEHOLDER COST MATRIX:
| Group | Impact | Benefit/Harm | Magnitude (L/M/H) |
|---|---|---|---|
- CONFIDENCE: ___%
- REVERSAL TRIGGER: I would change my mind if: ___
What This Teaches You
You learn to take an ethical position with full awareness of its costs. AI feedback reveals whether your arguments are as strong as you think and whether your stakeholder analysis is complete -- preparing you for the defence to come.