On the Ethics of Autonomous and Intelligent Systems (AIS)

In the 4th industrial revolution under which autonomous, intelligent systems are designed, certain human brain capacities are delegated to machines. This brings in great opportunity to reduce the need for human intervention in routines of daily lives, together with considerable ethical challenges. The role of the designers of such systems, i.e., engineers, is most important in balancing the opportunities and the challenges. Being a global organization with more than 450,000 members, IEEE took responsibility and has set up the Global Initiative on Ethics of Autonomous and Intelligent Systems, whose mission is: “To ensure every stakeholder involved in the design and development of autonomous and intelligent systems is educated, trained, and empowered to prioritize ethical considerations so that these technologies are advanced for the benefit of humanity.” In this talk I will present the various activities of the global initiative to promote ethics in AIS and, in particular, I will introduce Ethically Aligned Design, First Edition, which is a comprehensive treatise that combines a conceptual framework addressing universal human values, sustainability, data agency, and technical dependability, among other pressing issues with a set of principles to guide A/IS creators and users through a wide-ranging set of recommendations, further resources and reference material, and a painstakingly created glossary. Moreover, users - at all levels - of artificial intelligent systems must be aware of the ethical implications when deciding to use them. Policy makers are responsible for their regulation. But most importantly, designers of AIS systems -engineers - who are the only ones that can control some of the features reflecting on ethical issues (e.g., transparency) must take personal responsibility for the systems they produces to make sure they prioritize ethical considerations so that these technologies are advanced for the benefit of humanity. The way to raise awareness and responsibility is education, and IEEE has a special role in educating present and future engineers in the ethically aligned design of autonomous, intelligent systems.