From Computer Ethics and the Ethics of AI towards an Ethics of Digital Ecosystems

open access articleEthical, social and human rights aspects of computing technologies have been discussed since the inception of these technologies. In the 1980s this led to the development of a discourse often referred to as computer ethics. More recently, since the middle of the 2010s, a highly visible discourse on the ethics of artificial intelligence (AI) has developed. This paper discusses the relationship between these two discourses and compares their scopes, the topics and issues they cover, their theoretical basis and reference disciplines, the solutions and mitigations options they propose and their societal impact. The paper argues that an understanding of the similarities and differences of the discourses can benefit the respective discourses individually. More importantly, by reviewing them, one can draw conclusions about relevant features of the next discourse, the one we can reasonably expect to follow after the ethics of AI. The paper suggests that instead of focusing on a technical artefact such as computers or AI, one should focus on the fact that ethical and related issues arise in the context of socio-technical systems. Drawing on the metaphor of ecosystems which is widely applied to digital technologies, it suggests preparing for a discussion of the ethics of digital ecosystems. Such a discussion can build on and benefit from a more detailed understanding of its predecessors in computer ethics and the ethics of AI

Tutorial: Legality and Ethics of Web Scraping

Researchers and practitioners often use various tools and technologies to automatically retrieve data from the Web (often referred to as Web scraping) when conducting their projects. Unfortunately, they often overlook the legality and ethics of using these tools to collect data. Failure to pay due attention to these aspects of Web Scraping can result in serious ethical controversies and lawsuits. Accordingly, we review legal literature together with the literature on ethics and privacy to identify broad areas of concern together with a list of specific questions that researchers and practitioners engaged in Web scraping need to address. Reflecting on these questions and concerns can potentially help researchers and practitioners decrease the likelihood of ethical and legal controversies in their work

Human-Machine Communication: Complete Volume. Volume 4

This is the complete volume of HMC Volume 4

Minding the Gap: Computing Ethics and the Political Economy of Big Tech

In 1988 Michael Mahoney wrote that “[w]hat is truly revolutionary about the computer will become clear only when computing acquires a proper history, one that ties it to other technologies and thus uncovers the precedents that make its innovations significant” (Mahoney, 1988). Today, over thirty years after this quote was written, we are living right in the middle of the information age and computing technology is constantly transforming modern living in revolutionary ways and in such a high degree that is giving rise to many ethical considerations, dilemmas, and social disruption. To explore the myriad of issues associated with the ethical challenges of computers using the lens of political economy it is important to explore the history and development of computer technology