ETICA Project
(GA number 230318)

ICT has an immediate and broad impact on the lives of most individuals. Ethical scrutiny is not well established. Existing ethics review mechanisms are not suited for many of the ethical issues that ICT is likely to cause in the future. Europe has the unique opportunity to show international leadership by pointing the way to how human rights, ethical values and moral norms can be explicitly considered in technology development. The ETICA project (Ethical Issues of
Emerging ICT Applications, GA 230318, www.etica-project.eu
) provides the basis for a new enlightened approach to the development, governance and use of emerging ICT.
1.1
Outcomes
Major outcomes of ETICA include:
 a methodology to identify future socio-technical systems in need of ethical investigation
 a comprehensive analysis and evaluation of 11 emerging technologies and their ethical implications
 a critical review of current ethics governance models in ICT
1.2
Findings: Emerging ICTs
Using the developed methodologies ETICA developed a list of 11 high-level socio-technical systems that are likely to be socially relevant in the next 10 to 15 years. By using perspectives from law, gender studies, institutional ethics and technology assessment, the following ranking of relevant technologies was developed:
1.
Ambient Intelligence
2.
Augmented and virtual reality
3.
Future Internet
4.
Robotics and Artificial Intelligence and Affective computing
5.
Neuroelectronics and Bioelectronics and Human-Machine Symbiosis
6.
Cloud Computing
7.
Quantum Computing
1.3
Findings: Ethical Issues
The ethical analysis of these technologies revealed numerous ethical issues. Several recurring issues arise, notably those related to:
 privacy,
 data protection,
 intellectual property,
 security.
In addition to these, there were numerous ethical issues that are less obvious and currently not regulated. These include:
 autonomy, freedom, agency,
 possibility of persuasion or coercion,
 responsibility, liability,
 the possibility of machine ethics

 access, digital divides
 power issues
 consequences of technology for our view of humans
 conceptual issues (e.g. notions of emotions, intelligence),
 link between and integration of ethics into law,
 culturally different perceptions of ethics.
This non-comprehensive list shows that there are numerous ethical issues we can expect to arise.
1.4
Recommendations
By exploring technologies, ethical issues and current ways to address these, the ETICA has developed the following recommendations. These recommendations are relevant to policy makers involved in science and technology policy, industry and civil society with the aim to facilitate the integration of ethical reflexivity into technical research and development. This will allow to address ethical issues efficiently.
1.4.1
Recommendations for policy makers
Policy makers have an important role to create the regulatory framework and the infrastructure to allow ethics to be considered in ICT. ETICA recommends the following three main areas of policy activity:
Provide regulatory framework which will support Ethical Impact Assessment for ICTs

To raise awareness of the importance of ethics in new ICTs

To encourage ethical reflexivity within ICT research and development

To provide appropriate tools and methods to identify and address ethical issues

To address the wide range of current and new ethical issues arising from ICT, modelled along the lines of environmental, privacy or equality impact assessments

To allow ICT professionals to use their expertise in emerging ICTs to contribute to ethical solutions

To raise awareness of ethical issues regarding animals and environmental issues

To proactively consider legal solutions to foreseeable situations that will likely arise from the application of future and emerging technologies
Establish an ICT Ethics Observatory

To collect and communicate the conceptual, methodological, procedural and substantive aspects of ICT ethics

To provide a community-owned publicly accessible repository and dissemination tool of research on ICT ethics

To give examples of approaches and governance structures that allow addressing ethical issues

To disseminate past and current research ethics and ICT including relevant work packages and deliverables and relevant National Ethics Committee opinions

To facilitate the Ethical Impact Assessment

To provide an early warning mechanism for issues that may require legislation
Establish a forum for stakeholder involvement


To allow and encourage civil society and its representations, industry, NGOs and other stakeholders to exchange ideas and express their views

To exchange experience between to develop ethical reflexivity in the discussion

To reach consensus concerning good practice in the area of ethics and ICT

To build a bridge between civil society and policy makers
1.4.2
Recommendations for Industry and Researchers and CSOs
Industry, researchers and other individuals or organisations should adhere to the following recommendations in order to be proactive and allow innovation to be socially responsible.
Incorporate ethics into ICT research and development

To make explicit that ethical sensitivity is in the interest of ICT users and providers

To distinguish between law and ethics and see that following legal requirements is not always sufficient to address ethical issues

To engage in discussion of what constitutes ethical issues and be open to incorporation of gender, environmental and other issues
Facilitate ethical reflexivity in ICT projects and practice

To realise that ethical issues are context-dependent and need specific attention of individuals with local knowledge and understanding

To simultaneously consider the identification of ethical issues and their resolutions

To be open about the description of the project and its ethical issues

To encourage broader stakeholder engagement in the identification and resolution of ethical questions.
The ETICA project provides details, suggestions and starting points for all of these recommendations.
1.5
Beneficiaries
By integrating ethical thinking and reflexivity in the technology development process, the
ETICA recommendations will provide benefits for numerous stakeholders:

ICT industry strengthens its reputation and builds trust which leads to increased market share and profitability;

Policy makers are provided with the tools to ensure social and political benefits from
ICT are realised;

Researchers are able to explicitly address the ethical dimension of ICT related research;

Society has confidence that ethical norms are embedded in the process and outcome of
ICT policy, research, development, implementation and use.

The ETICA event “IT for a Better Future - How to integrate ethics, politics and innovation” will disseminate the findings and recommendations of the project to a wider audience and relevant stakeholders such as:

Policy makers responsible for ICT and ICT research policy

ICT industry and researchers

Researchers and administrators working on ICT and ethics
2.1
Ideas and Principle
The main aim of the event is to get key stakeholders to engage with ETICA and explore how findings and recommendations can influence their practice. For this purpose these stakeholders need to be informed about the outcomes and be encouraged to think about the relevance of these outcomes for their work.
The chosen approach is to briefly outline the main aspects of ETICA, to provide contributors and the audience with supplementary documentation, and ask the stakeholders to react to the project.
This approach is more appropriate because it reflects the envisaged usage and legacy of ETICA and its synergy with the EGAIS project. If the project is to have relevance beyond the funding time, it will need to be easily accessible and provide useful input for stakeholders. This can best be assessed by gauging these stakeholders’ reaction to the documentation that ETICA will produce.
The ETICA consortium will therefore prepare documentation (policy briefs) that cover these issues in the appropriate depth but focus on issues of interest such as:

What is the relevance of ethics and ICT? Provide brief illustrative examples

What are the findings of ETICA?

How can they be used in practice (toolbox, outcomes, recommendations)?
2.2
Raising attention
It is important to first set the scene. Many speakers and members of the audience will not have a clear understanding of ethics, nor will they will always be clear on the relationship of ethics, technology and current legal regulations. It is therefore important to show the relevance of ethics in the context of:

Economic consequences

Legal framework

Social relevance
In order to ensure that the relevance is clear to speakers and audiences, the initial presentation after the chair’s introduction will be an introduction into the relevance of ethics in the area of
ICT. In addition, all speakers will be asked to give their view of the importance of ethics in ICT and under which conditions ethics can have an impact. This will allow a multi-perspective framing of the problem and ensure that it is relevant to the audience.

2.3
Format
In addition, by giving the floor to users and stakeholders, the event will provide a sounding board for ETICA. It will allow the consortium to review recommendations and conclusions prior to the end of the project in May 2011.
An appropriate format would therefore be to organise three panels, one for each of the main stakeholder groups outlined earlier. Each of these panels will run for 75 minutes and comprise 4 speakers, one member of the ETICA consortium and a chair.
In order to facilitate this principle of open communication, all speakers will be given an ETICA policy brief and further appropriate documentation that will be tailored to the concerns of their stakeholder group.