What Tech Ethics? Situating the Ethics Wave in Tech within Classic Ethics Theory

• In Event: Innovation Under Fire: Shifting Imaginaries of Science, Technology and Society Governance – II

Abstract

Everybody is talking about getting more ethics into tech. But what ethics? In recent years, large technology companies such as Google, Apple and Microsoft have touted new ethics initiatives as a response to the so-called “techlash” and the general push for more ethical practices in the industry. But many of the new ethics charters and guidelines are constructed form a standpoint of practical application in specific situations related to the companies’ area of business. They are not rooted in the general, academic discourse on and philosophical inquiry into ethics, and these new initiatives are thus isolated to the specific practices of the company. In this paper presentation, the author argues that expressions of tech ethics cannot be effective or socially beneficial unless they are situated within established ethical schools of thought. Without such situatedness, there is a high risk of sudden inapplicability of an ethics charter due to changing circumstances – something the rapid change in the technology industry is very conducive to. The author also shows how specific, current ethics declarations from tech companies can be rendered irrelevant by interrogating them with basic questions from academic ethics discourse. Finally, it is shown how these ethics initiatives can be vastly improved by positioning them within ethical lines of thinking such as deontology, utilitarianism and virtue ethics.

Author

• Morten Bay, University of Southern California, Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism