Digital Ethics

The need for a constructive discourse around ethics in the digital realm, as well as the necessity for a wide-spread literacy in how to design for ethics in a digitalised environment has acquired, in the recent years, a central focus in industry and society in relation to emerging applications, such as autonomous cars and robots, difficulties regulating and evaluating software, personal integrity and privacy in regard to big data, the rise of AI and smart systems in general. At the moment, the debate is dominated by discussions related to development and implementation of AI, but ethical issues increasingly occur in society at large as digitalisation impacts more crucial functions and services. 

RISE, as the Swedish research institute is working to design sustainable futures together with all actors in society: with its ability to gather stakeholders from industry, academia, public sector and the civil society, RISE undertakes projects and builds programs to systemically tackle cases that require an ability to design for ethics, in particular when digital technologies play a part. For this reason, RISE has chosen Digital Ethics as a strategic area to explore and develop, not only to define normative directions, but to establish an applied and actionable field of design knowledge, shaping how to realize future material or immaterial artefacts.

Growing and consolidating deep knowledge in all ethical aspects related to digital technologies is practice-driven and being built by implementing solutions and proposals, such as design interventions, pedagogical initiatives, debates, workshops.

Digital ethics can support projectwork in several ways: 

• Support in writing a project application/preparing a pitch, including aspects related to digital ethics; 
• Support in carrying out the work of the project (when ethical questions emerge along the way);  
• Support in reflecting and articulating how the project has dealt with ethical considerations (at the end)  
• Support in connecting with other initiatives that deal with similar issues / creating dialogue / increasing competences  

This happens in different formats: 

• professional education, 
• methodological support in designing with digital materials and minimising unintended consequences of products, services and systems.

RISE hosts public conversations on Digital Ethics, in collaboration with Umeå Institute of Design and Eindhoven University of Technology, to raise awareness and create knowledge in this area. 

Hosted by Nina Bozic, Katarina Pietrzak and Ambra Trotto. Feel free to contact us, if you want to receive an invitation to participate. 

Here are the links to some of the talks from conversations on digital ethics:

November 2nd, 2020:

• Conversation with Peter Ljungstrand, Joshua Bronson as opponent (video)
• Conversation with Joshua Bronson, Peter Ljungstrand as opponent (video)
• Conversation with Ambra Trotto (video)

November 27th, 2020:

• Conversation with Caroline Hummels, Virginia Dignum as opponent (podcast)
• Conversation with Virginia Dignum, Caroline Hummels as opponent (podcast)
• Conversation with Kristina Knaving, Heather Wiltse as opponent (podcast)
• Conversation with Heather Wiltse (podcast)

January 27th, 2021:

• Introduction on Digital Ethics by Ambra Trotto (video)
• Conversation between Demian Horst and Ambra Trotto (video)
• Conversation between Paolo Camerin and Kristina Knaving (video)
• Conversation between Zena Corda and Joshua Bronson (video)
• Conversation between Jeroen Peeters and Cristofer Englund (video)

This is a lecture on how to Design for Digital Ethics, given by Ambra Trotto at the Umeå Institute of Design.