An ecosystemic view on information, data, and knowledge: insights on agential AI and relational ethics

This article takes the lead from the data-information-knowledge-wisdom (DIKW) pyramid which is still a foundational paradigm in information science and applied fields. The goal is three-folded: (1) to outline a critique of such paradigm, with specific regard to its logico-objectivist standpoint; (2) to propose an information theory-based revisitation of the concepts of data, information, knowledge, and wisdom able to move beyond logico-objectivism; (3) to advance an ecosystemic rearrangement among data, information, and knowledge, whose key feature is the balanced entanglement between known and unknown. This will lead to conceptualizing agency as an open-ended information-processing disposition. Such conceptualization can prove useful to reframe discussions around Artificial Intelligence (AI) beyond sentience, emphasizing the epistemological effects that AI has in the world, as well as to advance an understanding of ethics as a relational from-within practice.