A Comparative Assessment and Synthesis of Twenty Ethics Codes on AI and Big Data

Up to date, more than 80 codes exist for handling ethical risks of artificial intelligence and big data. In this paper, we analyse where those codes converge and where they differ. Based on an in-depth analysis of 20 guidelines, we identify three procedural action types (1. control and document, 2. inform, 3. assign responsibility) as well as four clusters of ethical values whose promotion or protection is supported by the procedural activities. We achieve a synthesis of previous approaches with a framework of seven principles, combining the four principles of biomedical ethics with three distinct procedural principles: control, transparency and accountability.