From value-lists to value-based engineering with IEEE 7000™

Abstract

Digital ethics is currently being discussed worldwide as a necessity to create more reliable IT systems. This discussion, fueled by the fear of uncontrollable general artificial intelligence (AI) and by ethical dilemmas of existing systems, has moved many institutions and scientists to demand value principles that should guide the development of future IT systems. These usually include the demand for privacy, security, transparency, fairness, etc. This article shows why working through lists of values is insufficient for good or ethically aligned design. It will be shown how a truly ethical ‘Value-based Engineering’ (VbE) would have to look like instead, so that technical product innovation as a whole is put on better (more ethical) feet. VbE is a process-driven, holistic approach to system engineering which initially drew from the ideas of Value Sensitive Design and Ethical Computing. From 2016-2021 VbE was further fleshed out in the IEEE 7000™standardization project <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">*</sup> . <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">*</sup> This article presents inter alia guidance for ethical engineering given in the forthcoming IEEE 7000− standard. However, this article solely represents the views of the author and does not necessarily represent a position of either the IEEE P7000 Working Group, IEEE or the IEEE Standards Association. The official link to the IEEE P7000 is: https://sagroups.iece.org/7000/.