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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Ethically Aligned Design: An empirical evaluation of the RESOLVEDD-strategy in Software and Systems development context

Pekka AbrahamssonVille VakkuriKai-kristian Kemell

subject

FOS: Computer and information sciencesSystem developmentComputingMilieux_THECOMPUTINGPROFESSIONbusiness.industryComputer scienceProcess (engineering)050901 criminology05 social sciences020207 software engineeringContext (language use)02 engineering and technologyField (computer science)Computer Science - Computers and SocietySoftwareComputers and Society (cs.CY)0202 electrical engineering electronic engineering information engineeringKey (cryptography)Engineering ethics0509 other social sciencesBusiness ethicsbusinessDesign methods

description

Use of artificial intelligence (AI) in human contexts calls for ethical considerations for the design and development of AI-based systems. However, little knowledge currently exists on how to provide useful and tangible tools that could help software developers and designers implement ethical considerations into practice. In this paper, we empirically evaluate a method that enables ethically aligned design in a decision-making process. Though this method, titled the RESOLVEDD-strategy, originates from the field of business ethics, it is being applied in other fields as well. We tested the RESOLVEDD-strategy in a multiple case study of five student projects where the use of ethical tools was given as one of the design requirements. A key finding from the study indicates that simply the presence of an ethical tool has an effect on ethical consideration, creating more responsibility even in instances where the use of the tool is not intrinsically motivated.

yearjournalcountryeditionlanguage
2019-05-04
10.1109/seaa.2019.00015http://arxiv.org/abs/1905.06417