Whose ethics govern? AI, relational ethics, and professional codes of social workers and counsellors in Hong Kong and Singapore

This paper examines professional codes of ethics for social work and counselling in Hong Kong and Singapore, assessing their adequacy for governing practice in an era of artificial intelligence and digital hybridity. Through textual analysis of four codes across two Asian jurisdictions, it identifies three interconnected gaps: (1) Content gap: codes are silent on AI, algorithmic decision support, and generative technologies; (2) Cultural relational gap: codes embed Western assumptions of individual autonomy, impartiality, and clear boundaries that do not align with the relational ethics of guanxi (關係), xinren (信任), and renqing (人情) through which practitioners actually navigate their work; and (3) Paradigm gap: codes assume separable practice modalities whereas contemporary practice constitutes continuous movement across hybrid digital–physical configurations. The paper’s contribution is demonstrating that these gaps are compounding: existing research indicates that practitioners are already doing relational ethics work in hybrid practice, yet their codes offer no support for this navigational work. The challenge AI poses to Asian professional practice is not merely updating codes with new content but fundamentally a question of whose ethical frameworks should govern professional life in Asian societies.