An embedded ethics approach for AI development
'Ethics must be part of the development process'

Date:
September 1, 2020
Source:
Technical University of Munich (TUM)
Summary:
The increasing use of AI (artificial intelligence) in the
development of new medical technologies demands greater attention to
ethical aspects. An interdisciplinary team advocates the integration
of ethics from the very beginning of the development process of
new technologies.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
The increasing use of AI (artificial intelligence) in the development
of new medical technologies demands greater attention to ethical
aspects. An interdisciplinary team at the Technical University of Munich
(TUM) advocates the integration of ethics from the very beginning of
the development process of new technologies. Alena Buyx, Professor
of Ethics in Medicine and Health Technologies, explains the embedded
ethics approach.


========================================================================== Professor Buyx, the discussions surrounding a greater emphasis on ethics
in AI research have greatly intensified in recent years, to the point
where one might speak of "ethics hype" ...

Prof. Buyx: ... and many committees in Germany and around the world such
as the German Ethics Council or the EU Commission High-Level Expert Group
on Artificial Intelligence have responded. They are all in agreement: We
need more ethics in the development of AI-based health technologies. But
how do things look in practice for engineers and designers? Concrete
solutions are still few and far between. In a joint pilot project with
two Integrative Research Centers at TUM, the Munich School of Robotics
and Machine Intelligence (MSRM) with its director, Prof. Sami Haddadin,
and the Munich Center for Technology in Society (MCTS), with Prof. Ruth Mu"ller, we want to try out the embedded ethics approach. We published
the proposal in Nature Machine Intelligence at the end of July.

What exactly is meant by the "embedded ethics approach"? Prof.Buyx:
The idea is to make ethics an integral part of the research process by integrating ethicists into the AI development team from day one. For
example, they attend team meetings on a regular basis and create a sort
of "ethical awareness" for certain issues. They also raise and analyze
specific ethical and social issues.

Is there an example of this concept in practice? Prof. Buyx:
The Geriatronics Research Center, a flagship project of the MSRM in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, is developing robot assistants to enable people
to live independently in old age. The center's initiatives will include
the construction of model apartments designed to try out residential
concepts where seniors share their living space with robots. At a joint
meeting with the participating engineers, it was noted that the idea
of using an open concept layout everywhere in the units -- with few
doors or individual rooms -- would give the robots considerable range
of motion. With the seniors, however, this living concept could prove
upsetting because they are used to having private spaces. At the outset,
the engineers had not given explicit consideration to this aspect.

Prof.Buyx: The approach sounds promising. But how can we avoid "embedded ethics" from turning into an "ethics washing" exercise, offering companies
a comforting sense of "being on the safe side" when developing new AI technologies? That's not something we can be certain of avoiding. The key
is mutual openness and a willingness to listen, with the goal of finding
a common language -- and subsequently being prepared to effectively
implement the ethical aspects. At TUM we are ideally positioned to achieve this. Prof. Sami Haddadin, the director of the MSRM, is also a member
of the EU High-Level Group of Artificial Intelligence. In his research,
he is guided by the concept of human centered engineering. Consequently,
he has supported the idea of embedded ethics from the very beginning. But
one thing is certain: Embedded ethics alone will not suddenly make AI
"turn ethical." Ultimately, that will require laws, codes of conduct
and possibly state incentives.


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by
Technical_University_of_Munich_(TUM). Note: Content may be edited for
style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Stuart McLennan, Amelia Fiske, Leo Anthony Celi, Ruth Mu"ller, Jan
Harder, Konstantin Ritt, Sami Haddadin, Alena Buyx. An embedded
ethics approach for AI development. Nature Machine Intelligence,
2020; DOI: 10.1038/s42256-020-0214-1 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/09/200901112221.htm

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