Ethics of Emerging Information and Communication Technologies: On the implementa

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Ethics of Emerging Information and Communication Technologies: On the implementation of responsible research and innovation

Introduction

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) generate 25 per cent of total business expenditure in research and innovation (R&I) in Europe (European Commission 2014). In addition, investments in ICTs account for 50 per cent of all European productivity growth. Recognising their importance, in the Horizon 2020 programme the European Union reserved 16 billion Euros for research on ICTs. In addition to this public investment, there is significant private funding for R&I. The scope of this expenditure and the social consequences put forth that innovations are likely to have rendered it desirable to have mechanisms that would allow an early identification of social and ethical consequences of emerging ICTs (Wright and Friedewald 2013).

This reasoning is expressed in current policy on Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) on both European and national levels. RRI is a pillar of the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation—Horizon 2020 (European Commission 2013) and national funding bodies including those of Norway, the UK, and the Netherlands have initiated programmes to include RRI into funded R&I projects (Sutcliffe 2011). It is a cornerstone of current research and science policy (Anichini and de Cheveigné 2012; Cagnin et al. 2012; Mejlgaard and Bloch 2012; Owen et al. 2012). RRI aims to achieve acceptable and societally desirable outcomes of R&I activities (Von Schomberg 2012). R&I thus becomes a key factor as an enabler of smart, sustainable, and inclusive growth as is aimed for by the European 2020 strategy (European Commission 2010).

This article contributes to meeting this challenge by providing decision makers and researchers with a way of sensitising stakeholders involved in RRI in ICT to possible ethical issues. This increased sensitivity can then be translated into appropriate research policies, programmes, or projects. Drawing on an extensive analysis of emerging ICTs it is found that not only is it hard to establish clear boundaries between ICTs, but that similar types of issues tend to reappear across different ICTs. As a result, higher level themes across issues are established that serve as a basis for a heuristic that supports stakeholders of ICT R&I in substantiating their RRI activities.

Concepts and methodology

This article aims to facilitate RRI in emerging ICTs in a way that goes beyond individual artefacts or application examples by identifying ethical issues at the convergence of ICTs. This broader view is based upon a detailed understanding of individual technologies. It is therefore important to briefly describe how we arrived at the ICTs considered to be emerging, and, in more depth, insights into ethical and social consequences of these emerging ICTs.

This section starts by clarifying our understanding of emerging ICTs and explaining how a transection of emerging ICTs representative for the field as a whole was established. Next, it discusses what counts as an ethical issue in this context, and how ethical issues were identified for the emerging ICTs. Finally, the section discusses what cross-cutting themes emerged from categorising these issues.

Emerging information and communication technologies

The term ‘emerging technology’ is linked to the idea of a life cycle of a technology. Kendall (1997) suggests that the life cycle of technology can be described in five consecutive phases of technological advancement that are somewhat overlapping:

technological invention or discovery;

technological emergence;

technological acceptance;

technological sublime (in which its value is fully appreciated);

technological surplus.

In the second or emergence phase, technologies have been discovered or invented a while ago. Although they are known by researchers, decision makers and end users are not yet fully aware of the details, potential, and uses of these technologies, hence the term ‘emergence’ (Kendall 1997). Only in the ‘sublime’ phase is a technology fully understood, appreciated, and put to its best uses. Emerging technologies can thus be defined as those currently being developed and holding a realistic potential to not only become reality, but to become socially and economically relevant within the foreseeable future. Instances of emerging technologies include biotechnologies, ICTs, and nanotechnologies. For current purposes, ‘foreseeable future’ is equated to a time frame of 10–15 years. The limited period of 10–15 years is justified because established foresight methodologies allow for claims using this horizon (Brey 2012a). Furthermore, the temporal limitation is due to the fact that technology development and funding programmes have a comparable time frame (Stahl and Rogerson 2009).

This article concentrates specifically on emerging ICTs. While most of us will be familiar with ICTs and their numerous applications, it is difficult to define the concept of ICT. Computers as information processing machines used to be large, easily identifiable machines. This is no longer the case, as aspects of information processing now pervade most other technologies from household support, such as washing machines and dishwashers, to cars and whole buildings. Communication technology has followed a similar path and is now pervasive and integrated in all sorts of other artefacts. In order to understand the social and ethical consequences of ICT, a broad and inclusive definition needs to be chosen. We therefore define ICTs as those large-scale socio-technical systems that make use of computer, network, and other information technology to significantly affect the way humans interact with the world.

The process of identifying emerging ICTs was complex and led to a large number of possible technologies, artefacts, and applications. In order to keep this manageable, we condensed the various visions to a list of eleven candidates for the status of being an emerging technology that are listed below in alphabetic order:

Affective Computing

Ambient Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence

Bioelectronics

Cloud Computing

Future Internet

Human-machine symbiosis

Neuroelectronics

Quantum Computing

Robotics

Virtual / Augmented Reality

Ethics of emerging technologies

In this article, we explore the ethics of emerging technologies with a view to providing decision makers with insights that allow them to steer R&I in directions permitting them to proactively engage with likely ethical issues. Having outlined what constitutes an emerging technology, more specifically an emerging ICT, and which eleven emerging ICTs are being identified, we now need to explain what counts as an ethical issue in this context.

This discussion needs to acknowledge the very broad range and long history of philosophical ethics. This short article cannot possibly do justice to it. Moreover, we believe that a detailed philosophical account of ethics would be of limited value for this article. What we are interested in are likely consequences of the introduction or use of ICTs that would affect individuals’ or collectives’ rights or obligations, that people would object to and see as problematic, unjust, or difficult to justify. Following Stahl’s (2012)categorisation of ethics, these are issues that relate to moral intuition or explicit morality. This means that they are related to what people feel to be right or wrong or that they would explicitly argue to be right or wrong. Such intuitions or moral convictions may be subject to a broad range of philosophical ethical justifications and reflections. This delineation of ethical issues implies a broad and pluralistic approach to ethics which includes a number of social issues. It does not require the adoption of a particular philosophical position, such as deontology, teleology, or virtue ethics. The purpose of our work is to identify possible ethical issues. Addressing them may need more detailed philosophical analysis, but this is a step beyond the remit of the current article.

Ethical issues of emerging technologies

As indicated earlier, we see this article’s role as a mechanism to be used to sensitise stakeholders involved in RRI in ICT to possible ethical issues. This increased sensitivity can then be translated into appropriate research policies, programmes, or projects. The idea is that the following section will offer insights and maybe even inspirations that link the general ethical issues of emerging ICTs that we discuss here to the concrete technologies that these policymakers, decision makers, or researchers actually deal with.

We have already pointed out that different issues can have different meanings for different technologies or in different application scenarios. However, there are many similarities and there is important overlap between the technologies. This section therefore offers a brief outline of the main themes and some of the key sub-themes. It lists ethical issues that have been identified as relevant across several emerging ICTs and that these are therefore worth considering when developing new technologies, even if these do not clearly fit into any one of the main technologies listed earlier.

Conceptual issues and ethical theories

One recurring key issue is the question of the conceptual clarity surrounding emerging technology. Lack of conceptual clarity becomes relevant in cases where the vision of the technology is not well developed.

Most of the technologies listed above involve scientifically- or philosophically-contested terminology. Affective computing, for example, is based on the idea that affects and emotions can be measured and processed computationally. In addition to the technical challenges this may cause, it furthermore involves questions pertaining to the definition, recognition, and measurement of emotions. Disciplines that have been involved in such work, including psychology or sociology, do not have universally-accepted answers to such questions.

researcher or policymaker aiming to understand how this set of issues may affect their work can try to answer the following guiding questions.

Guiding Questions:

Are concepts and terminology regarding the technology already established? How much disagreement exists concerning the scope of the technology?

Does current research concerning the technology cross academic discipline boundaries? If so, are there problematic definitions of terms and concepts across these boundaries?

Do ethical questions concerning the technology imply a particular ethical position?

Impact on individuals

Under the theme of ‘impact on individuals’ we collected issues that have predictable consequences for individual human beings, their rights, and their well-being. Many of these issues are already well discussed in the literature and in some cases have led to significant legislative activities.

Autonomy

Personal autonomy can be affected by emerging technologies. On the one hand, many technologies that were investigated are said to contribute to increasing human self-control. Technologies make people more aware of themselves and their environment and give them more control over their environment. Ambient intelligence, for instance, makes one’s environment more responsive to a person’s needs and intentions ultimately allowing personalised interaction and information. Also, technology may enhance our capacities such as our cognitive and motor abilities, increasing our control over our life.

Treatment of humans

By enabling more refined and life-like interaction with, collection, and use of detailed and specific personal data, emerging ICTs enable the creation of persuasive and coercive systems able to manipulate individuals into performing certain unwanted or involuntary behaviour. What’s more, some technologies can lead to addiction of its users or provide ways to escape from ‘real life’. Related to this issue is the question of whether individuals are offered the opportunity to give their informed consent when engaging in human machine/system interaction, particularly vulnerable people including children and the elderly. Another issue along these lines is whether different rules apply for treating humans in ICT-enabled interactions, for instance, do events in a virtual environment have the same moral status as their ‘real life’ counterparts?

Identity

Key ethical questions refer to personal identity. By enabling individuals to improve their capacities and life in general, emerging technologies may cause individuals to be more self-centred. By taking on and enhancing traditionally human functions, emerging technologies may alter our view on what it means to be a human or individual. This includes conceptions of authenticity, human dignity, normality, and the idea of what makes someone healthy.

Security

Finally, the value of security is highlighted in multiple ethical analyses of emerging technologies. Although ICTs are important contributors to security, for instance by enabling advanced surveillance, some general drawbacks are also put forward in the ethical analyses. For one, ICTs such as the Future Internet exhibit all kinds of (new) vulnerabilities that attract criminals who try to take advantage of these vulnerabilities. Also applications of ICTs pose a risk to humans as they may damage the bodily and mental integrity of a person. Furthermore, technologies are said to distance individuals from the ‘real world’, blurring their perception of real life risks – which makes effective handling of these risks more difficult.

Consequences for society

The previous sections referred to ethical issues that predominantly affect the individual who uses or is affected by the technology. In addition to such individual consequences, most of the emerging ICTs studied entailed consequences for groups or society as a whole.

3.3.1 Digital divides

The very nature of society is increasingly affected by novel ICTs. A widely shared concern voiced with regards to numerous of the technologies refers to fairness and equity. These considerations are often framed in terms of the so-called ‘digital divide’ between those who have access to technologies and those who do not. This (or these multiple) divide(s) may result in or increase inequality within and/or between societies (e.g. rich and poor countries). This, in turn, may cause stratification of groups according to their access to technology and undermine communication. While some individuals and groups will be able to better communicate with one another, different availability of technologies and diverging abilities to use them may erect barriers to communication in some cases. Another related consequence is the possible stigmatisation of those without access as they fall behind and are not able to live up to the standards set by technological innovation.

Responsibility.

Issues are raised in the analyses concerning responsibility. Complexity of ICT systems makes it difficult to ascertain who is responsible for the consequences of the system, that is, the ‘problem of many hands’ (van de Poel et al. 2012). Additionally, as technology becomes more autonomous through ‘smart systems’, for example, a ‘responsibility gap’ can occur, making it difficult to allocate ultimate responsibility. This shift of control from humans to artefacts may also entail blaming technology for unwanted outcomes thereby exculpating humans involved.

Summary: Ethical issues of emerging ICTs

This section contains a highly-condensed summary of the ethical issues related to the set of eleven emerging ICTs that we identified as likely to be socially and economically relevant in the medium-term future. By moving beyond the ethical analysis of individual technology and recategorising all the various ethical aspects in a more generic way, we have developed a set of ethical issues that are relevant across individual technologies and applications.

The value of this work is that it provides a sensitising mechanism relevant to all ICT research and is of potential interest to all stakeholders who are involved in it. To avoid misunderstandings we reiterate the fact that this is not a comprehensive discussion, as future issues may arise that nobody has thought of yet. We also concede that there may be alternative ways of compiling and expressing the same issues. More importantly, this list is simply an enumeration of ethical issues that neglects the depth of possible discussion in terms of theoretical perspectives, resulting obligations and responsibilities, underlying values or possible tensions between ethical issues. This discussion should thus not be seen as a checklist that one can work through and be sure to have addressed all ethical issues. However, we do believe that it represents a valuable starting point for the reflection of the ethics of emerging ICTs. The guiding questions we have provided for the individual ethical issues similarly do not claim to comprehensively cover all angles of the various issues, but they allow users to look specifically at the project or technology they are engaged in and to explore likely issues worth considering

Application of RRI to emerging ICTs

An effective development of ethical awareness requires an understanding of possible ethical issues which then need to be worked through and analysed in detail in practical applications. When looking at the AREA framework for RRI (AREA: Anticipate, Reflect, Engage, Act, see (Owen 2014)), one can see several points where the awareness of ethical issues is important.

The above discussion of ethics of emerging ICTs clearly fits into the ‘Anticipation’ component of RRI. Large projects or programmes may have the opportunity to develop their own foresight activities. However, in most cases there will be limited resources for such activities. The ethical issues introduced earlier can therefore serve as a proxy of explicit foresight. They give an indication of likely ethical issues across technologies. The guiding questions can help the stakeholder involved to identify the specific issues that the particular technology in their area of interest may raise. The subsequent steps, Reflection, Engagement, and Action, all rely on an awareness of likely future issues.

Conclusion

In this article, we have identified a set of ethical issues that are predicted to become relevant during the further development of a number of emerging ICTs. We argue that there is much overlap between these issues and that the issues as outlined above have a high likelihood of becoming relevant across a broad range of ICTs. The academic contribution of the article is that it goes beyond the ethical analysis of individual technologies and offers an array of ethical issues that are likely to be relevant across different emerging ICTs.

Understanding the nature of these issues is a precondition of undertaking research and innovation responsibly. Principles of RRI are being promoted by research funders as well as scholars interested in research governance and policy. Implementing RRI is justified from an instrumental perspective in the sense that it can help avoid public backlash against innovation. More importantly, it can be seen as an integral part of science governance in a democratic society.

This article therefore makes an important contribution to the academic discourse on ethics and computing and RRI. It furthermore provides important input to practice and policy. However, we realise that the article has limitations. The description of ethical issues, while relevant and important cannot claim to be complete or comprehensive. The relatively abstract account of ethical issues we offer does not explain in depth how these issues would play out in practice. This requires detailed analysis of a technology and its likely context of use. Moreover, it is possible that new ethical issues will develop, either based on new technical capabilities or on the basis of changing moral perceptions. This raises the question of how the issues described in this article can be kept relevant and updated. The answer to this question will most likely involve a longer term commitment by research funders and research organisations to engage with these questions. It will require the building of a shared knowledge base that will allow stakeholders to contribute their insights and interact with one another.

. Write a one page synopsis for EACH article. The synopsis should contain the name of the article , what the article was about, and YOUR OPINION of what you read. Did you find it interesting? Do you agree or disagree with the article? In your own langauge

Explanation / Answer

Research and innovation in emerging technologies can have great benefits but also raise ethical and social concerns. The current discourse on Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) is a novel attempt to come to conceptual and practical ways of dealing with such concerns. In order to effectively understand and address possible ethical and social issues, stakeholders need to have an understanding of what such issues might be. This article explores ethical issues related to the field of emerging information and communication technologies (ICTs). Based on a foresight study of ICT that led to the identification of eleven emerging technologies, we outline the field of ethical and social issues of these technologies. This overview of possible problems can serve as an important sensitising device to these issues. We describe how such awareness can contribute to the successful deployment of responsible practice in research and innovation.

Ethics of Emerging Information and Communication Technologies On the implementation of responsible research and innovation.This article shows emerging of ICT and issues related to emerging technologies.

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