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What is ethics?
TL;DR — Ethics is logical, fun and extremely important. It helps us think about our products, cooperate and build societies. It can help shape our future, and by doing ethics we have a better chance at a positive one.
Ethics is a word that gets attached to all sorts of things: ethical produce, ethical design, ethical technology, the act of doing ethics, and indeed the ideas of right and wrong… When I’m talking about AI and Ethics I have a very specific definition in my mind that makes total sense to me, it shapes the way I talk and write about the subject. It gives me a lens to view peoples arguments and evaluate their opinions. It is also something I come back to in every talk I give as a linch pin from which to contextualise other topics.
As I’m coming to Ethics (the tradition of moral philosophy) with most of my professional life in design and development, please bare this in mind. I’m using ethics as method to create better products; to think more deeply about a teams issues, how to create a perspective change in an organisation, to mitigate bad outcomes–all in service of creating a better world. When we’re discussing AI and Ethics it’s important we’re on the same page about both terms… For some thoughts on AI, see this previous article.
So what do I mean when I think about ethics?
