Virginia Portillo , Liz Dowthwaite , Helen Creswick , Elvira Pérez Vallejos , Carolyn Ten Holter , Ansgar Koene , Marina Jirotka , Jun Zhao
{"title":"A call to action: Designing a more transparent online world for children and young people","authors":"Virginia Portillo , Liz Dowthwaite , Helen Creswick , Elvira Pérez Vallejos , Carolyn Ten Holter , Ansgar Koene , Marina Jirotka , Jun Zhao","doi":"10.1016/j.jrt.2024.100093","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jrt.2024.100093","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This paper reports on a qualitative research study that explored the practical and emotional experiences of young people aged 13–17 using algorithmically-mediated online platforms. It demonstrates an RI-based methodology for responsible two-way dialogue with the public, through listening to young people's needs and responding to their concerns. Participants discussed in detail how online algorithms work, enabling the young people to reflect, question, and develop their own critiques on issues related to the use of internet technologies. The paper closes with action areas from the young people for a fairer, usefully transparent and more responsible online environment. These actions include a desire to be informed about what data (both personal and situational) is collected and how, and who uses it and why, and policy recommendations for meaningful algorithmic transparency and accountability. Finally, participants claimed that whilst transparency is an important first principle, they also need more control over how platforms use the information they collect from users, including more regulation to ensure transparency is both meaningful and sustained.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":73937,"journal":{"name":"Journal of responsible technology","volume":"19 ","pages":"Article 100093"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666659624000192/pdfft?md5=e8823953ad735110aa03c82787c93158&pid=1-s2.0-S2666659624000192-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142172260","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Dirk R.M. Lukkien , Henk Herman Nap , Minke ter Stal , Wouter P.C. Boon , Alexander Peine , Mirella M.N. Minkman , Ellen H.M. Moors
{"title":"Embedding responsible innovation into R&D practices: A case study of socially assistive robot development","authors":"Dirk R.M. Lukkien , Henk Herman Nap , Minke ter Stal , Wouter P.C. Boon , Alexander Peine , Mirella M.N. Minkman , Ellen H.M. Moors","doi":"10.1016/j.jrt.2024.100091","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jrt.2024.100091","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The Responsible Innovation (RI) approach aims to transform research and development (R&D) into being more anticipatory, inclusive, reflective, and responsive. This study highlights the challenges of embedding RI in R&D practices. We fostered collective learning on RI in a socially assistive robot development project through applying participatory action research (PAR). In the PAR, we employed a mixed-methods approach, combining interviews, workshops, and online questionnaires, to collectively explore opportunities for RI, and elicit team member perceptions, opinions, and beliefs about RI. Our PAR led to some modest yet purposeful, deliberate efforts to address particular concerns regarding, for instance, privacy, control, and energy consumption. However, we also found that the embedding of RI in R&D practices can be hampered by four partly interrelated barriers: lack of an action perspective, the noncommittal nature of RI, the misconception that co-design equals RI, and limited integration between different R&D task groups. In this paper, we discuss the implications of these barriers for R&D teams and funding bodies, and we recommend PAR as a solution to address these barriers.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":73937,"journal":{"name":"Journal of responsible technology","volume":"19 ","pages":"Article 100091"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-08-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666659624000179/pdfft?md5=4f57f50c76da7b7d23cec3401fba2a9f&pid=1-s2.0-S2666659624000179-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141990870","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Reilly Smethurst , Amber G. Young , Ariel D. Wigdor
{"title":"Jürgen Habermas revisited via Tim Cook's Wikipedia biography: A hermeneutic approach to critical Information Systems research","authors":"Reilly Smethurst , Amber G. Young , Ariel D. Wigdor","doi":"10.1016/j.jrt.2024.100090","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jrt.2024.100090","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Critical Information Systems (IS) research is sometimes appreciated for the shades of gray it adds to sunny portraits of technology's emancipatory potential. In this article, we revisit a theory about Wikipedia’s putative freedom from the authority of corporate media's editors and authors. We present the curious example of Tim Cook's Wikipedia biography and its history of crowd-sourced editorial decisions, published on Wikipedia's talk pages. We use a hermeneutic method to subject the theory about Wikipedia's “rational discourse” and “emancipatory potential” to a soft, empirical test. When we examined Cook's Wikipedia biography and its editorial decisions, what we found pertained to authoritative discourse – the opposite of “rational discourse” – as well as Jürgen Habermas's concept of dramaturgical action. Our discussion aims to change how critical scholars think about IS's Habermasian theories and emancipatory technology. Our contribution – a critical intervention – is a clear alternative to mainstream IS research's moral prescriptions and mechanistic causes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":73937,"journal":{"name":"Journal of responsible technology","volume":"20 ","pages":"Article 100090"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-08-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666659624000167/pdfft?md5=d36142a2d3fc5a0c1844cf9be7f0ce77&pid=1-s2.0-S2666659624000167-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142310858","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Decoding faces: Misalignments of gender identification in automated systems","authors":"Elena Beretta , Cristina Voto , Elena Rozera","doi":"10.1016/j.jrt.2024.100089","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jrt.2024.100089","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Automated Facial Analysis technologies, predominantly used for facial detection and recognition, have garnered significant attention in recent years. Although these technologies have seen advancements and widespread adoption, biases embedded within systems have raised ethical concerns. This research aims to delve into the disparities of Automatic Gender Recognition systems (AGRs), particularly their oversimplification of gender identities through a binary lens. Such a reductionist perspective is known to marginalize and misgender individuals. This study set out to investigate the alignment of an individual's gender identity and its expression through the face with societal norms, and the perceived difference between misgendering experiences from machines versus humans. Insights were gathered through an online survey, utilizing an AGR system to simulate misgendering experiences. The overarching goal is to shed light on gender identity nuances and guide the creation of more ethically responsible and inclusive facial recognition software.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":73937,"journal":{"name":"Journal of responsible technology","volume":"19 ","pages":"Article 100089"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666659624000155/pdfft?md5=24b180fd999b7d4970841ecf98f18ac7&pid=1-s2.0-S2666659624000155-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141630428","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Sarah Robinson , Jim Buckley , Luigina Ciolfi , Conor Linehan , Clare McInerney , Bashar Nuseibeh , John Twomey , Irum Rauf , John McCarthy
{"title":"Infrastructural justice for responsible software engineering,","authors":"Sarah Robinson , Jim Buckley , Luigina Ciolfi , Conor Linehan , Clare McInerney , Bashar Nuseibeh , John Twomey , Irum Rauf , John McCarthy","doi":"10.1016/j.jrt.2024.100087","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrt.2024.100087","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>In recent years, we have seen many examples of software products unintentionally causing demonstrable harm. Many guidelines for ethical and responsible computing have been developed in response. Dominant approaches typically attribute liability and blame to individual companies or actors, rather than understanding how the working practices, norms, and cultural understandings in the software industry contribute to such outcomes. In this paper, we propose an understanding of responsibility that is infrastructural, relational, and cultural; thus, providing a foundation to better enable responsible software engineering into the future. Our approach draws on Young's (2006) social connection model of responsibility and Star and Ruhleder's (1994) concept of infrastructure. By bringing these theories together we introduce a concept called infrastructural injustice, which offers a new way for software engineers to consider their opportunities for responsible action with respect to society and the planet. We illustrate the utility of this approach by applying it to an Open-Source software communities’ development of Deepfake technology, to find key leverage points of responsibility that are relevant to both Deepfake technology and software engineering more broadly.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":73937,"journal":{"name":"Journal of responsible technology","volume":"19 ","pages":"Article 100087"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666659624000131/pdfft?md5=129d725094c45ad3f08ea3d866a85b49&pid=1-s2.0-S2666659624000131-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141307885","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"European technological protectionism and the risk of moral isolationism: The case of quantum technology development","authors":"Clare Shelley-Egan, Pieter Vermaas","doi":"10.1016/j.jrt.2024.100084","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jrt.2024.100084","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>In this editorial, we engage with the European Commission's 2023 recommendation calling for risk assessment with Member States on four critical technology areas, including quantum technology. A particular emphasis is put on the risks associated with technology security and technology leakage. Such risks may lead to protectionist measures. Mobilising European normative anchor points that inform the “right impacts” of research and innovation, we argue that a protectionist approach on the part of the European Union can lead to moral isolationism. This, in turn, can limit Europe's contribution to global development with respect to technological advances, sustainable development and quality of life. We contend that decisions on protectionism around quantum technology should not be made with a protectionist mindset about European values.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":73937,"journal":{"name":"Journal of responsible technology","volume":"18 ","pages":"Article 100084"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666659624000106/pdfft?md5=faecb48e04356c91ce7d914c60d69aa6&pid=1-s2.0-S2666659624000106-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141037141","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Enabling affordances for AI Governance","authors":"Siri Padmanabhan Poti, Christopher J Stanton","doi":"10.1016/j.jrt.2024.100086","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jrt.2024.100086","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Organizations dealing with mission-critical AI based autonomous systems may need to provide continuous risk management controls and establish means for their governance. To achieve this, organizations are required to embed trustworthiness and transparency in these systems, with human overseeing and accountability. Autonomous systems gain trustworthiness, transparency, quality, and maintainability through the assurance of outcomes, explanations of behavior, and interpretations of intent. However, technical, commercial, and market challenges during the software development lifecycle (SDLC) of autonomous systems can lead to compromises in their quality, maintainability, interpretability and explainability. This paper conceptually models transformation of SDLC to enable affordances for assurance, explanations, interpretations, and overall governance in autonomous systems. We argue that opportunities for transformation of SDLC are available through concerted interventions such as technical debt management, shift-left approach and non-ephemeral artifacts. This paper contributes to the theory and practice of governance of autonomous systems, and in building trustworthiness incrementally and hierarchically.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":73937,"journal":{"name":"Journal of responsible technology","volume":"18 ","pages":"Article 100086"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-05-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S266665962400012X/pdfft?md5=9bf6cc548743ad7d2d5c0830773f5145&pid=1-s2.0-S266665962400012X-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141058232","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A place where “You can be who you've always wanted to be…” Examining the ethics of intelligent virtual environments","authors":"Danielle Shanley, Darian Meacham","doi":"10.1016/j.jrt.2024.100085","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jrt.2024.100085","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The rapid development of interactive virtual reality (VR) spaces like VRChat has been made possible due to continuing increases in computer processing power, advances in artificial intelligence (AI) technologies such as natural language processing (NLP), and advances in 3D modelling and spatial and edge computing. Perhaps because these spaces rely on new ways of integrating different forms of advanced computing, such as AI and VR, little is yet known about their potential ethical implications. In this contribution, we provide an overview of key themes frequently discussed in the context of these so-called <em>Intelligent Virtual Environments</em> (IVEs). We highlight different ethical questions and the ways in which they are typically taken up in the literature. We first map how common concerns tend to revolve around technological feasibility and psychological impacts. We then ask how shifting the focus towards more philosophical perspectives might reorient discussions surrounding IVEs, opening up important avenues for future research. Our contribution in this review is to highlight how as active mediators of experience these technologies require critical reflection and should not be evaluated solely in terms of their functionality.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":73937,"journal":{"name":"Journal of responsible technology","volume":"18 ","pages":"Article 100085"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-05-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666659624000118/pdfft?md5=07ae452d1cff9888973af4ceb889ddc6&pid=1-s2.0-S2666659624000118-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141047393","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Gemma Serrano , Francesco Striano , Steven Umbrello
{"title":"Digital humanism as a bottom-up ethics","authors":"Gemma Serrano , Francesco Striano , Steven Umbrello","doi":"10.1016/j.jrt.2024.100082","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrt.2024.100082","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>In this paper, we explore a new perspective on digital humanism, emphasizing the centrality of multi-stakeholder dialogues and a bottom-up approach to surfacing stakeholder values. This approach starkly contrasts with existing frameworks, such as the Vienna Manifesto's top-down digital humanism, which hinges on pre-established first principles. Our approach provides a more flexible, inclusive framework that captures a broader spectrum of ethical considerations, particularly those pertinent to the digital realm. We apply our model to two case studies, comparing the insights generated with those derived from a utilitarian perspective and the Vienna Manifesto's approach. The findings underscore the enhanced effectiveness of our approach in revealing additional, often overlooked stakeholder values, not typically encapsulated by traditional top-down methodologies. Furthermore, this paper positions our digital humanism approach as a powerful tool for framing ethics-by-design, by promoting a narrative that empowers and centralizes stakeholders. As a result, it paves the way for more nuanced, comprehensive ethical considerations in the design and implementation of digital technologies, thereby enriching the existing literature on digital ethics and setting a promising agenda for future research.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":73937,"journal":{"name":"Journal of responsible technology","volume":"18 ","pages":"Article 100082"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-03-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666659624000088/pdfft?md5=a40431af04a93c455298d3e1eacfeb46&pid=1-s2.0-S2666659624000088-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140330847","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}