An Ethics Framework for the Internet of Musical Things

Abstract

The Internet of Musical Things (IoMusT) is an emerging field of academic and industrial research that extends the Internet of Things to the musical domain. Scarce research has been conducted on the field’s ethical aspects, and to fill this gap we propose a framework for the ethical design and evaluation of IoMusT technologies and applications. Besides being ethically rigorous, the framework seeks to be accessible for information engineers, musicians, and the wider circle of participants in the IoMusT. The purpose is to facilitate and quicken the process of ethically designing and evaluating work at the intersection of network-based technology and musical creativity. Finally, we exemplify the framework by applying it to an IoMusT experimental performance. Beyond facilitating the ethical evaluation of technologically enhanced music, the framework also advances work in contemporary AI ethics in two ways. First, by introducing the principles of creativity and decentralization as critical to ethically exploring musical creativity. Second, by organizing the principles of AI ethics under a human-centric logic.