Exploring moral responsibility in AI: A comparative analysis with Vinaya Piṭaka

This paper argues that the Theravāda Vinaya Piṭaka’s analysis of instigated killing in Pārājika III provides a conceptual model for distinguishing causal, moral, and legal responsibility in AI-mediated harm. Drawing on a becoming organic ontology of AI, the paper maintains that although AI systems lack intention (cetanā) and cannot be moral agents, their adaptive behaviour allows them to function as proximate causal conditions within complex socio-technical networks. By comparing four responsibility configurations in Pārājika III with contemporary AI scenarios, the paper clarifies how responsibility may remain intelligible even when action is distributed across human and technological actors.