A4.4.2 · Ethical considerations
Ethics of Emerging Technology Integration
A technology that barely existed five years ago can be in millions of pockets today, and each new capability raises ethical questions nobody had to answer before it existed. This statement asks whether our ethical guidelines are actually keeping up.
Explainer
Ethical guidelines written for yesterday's technology don't automatically cover tomorrow's. As computer technology becomes more deeply woven into daily life, existing rules need continual reassessment, not a one-off review, because new capabilities keep raising questions those rules were never written to answer.
A real example: data-protection law existed long before smartphones and social media, but it took the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), introduced in 2018, to catch up with just how much personal data modern technology actually collects, and to give people enforceable rights over it. The technology didn't wait for the ethics to catch up first, and it rarely does.
Worked example
Four emerging technologies
Click each one to see the specific tension it raises for society, individual rights, privacy and equity, the four dimensions this statement asks you to consider.
Check your understanding
Early quantum computers powerful enough to accelerate drug discovery are, for now, affordable only to the wealthiest governments and largest technology companies. Which ethical dimension does this concern raise most directly?
Common mistake
RecurringA genuinely documented pattern: candidates describe an organisation's ethics policy or guideline as a fixed, completed thing, something written once and then simply followed. Guidelines can never be static, because both the technology and society's expectations of it keep changing after the guideline was written.
Treats the guideline as finished: "The company has an AI ethics policy, so its use of the technology is covered." Assumes a guideline written at one point in time still applies to every new capability that comes afterward, without checking whether it actually does.
Treats the guideline as something to revisit: "The company's AI ethics policy needs to be reassessed as the technology gains new capabilities, since a policy written before a capability existed can't have accounted for the risks that capability introduces." Correctly frames ethical guidelines as needing ongoing reassessment, not a one-time box to tick.
Revision questions
Past-paper style. Write an answer, then reveal the marking points and mark yourself.
[2]State why ethical guidelines for a technology require continual reassessment rather than a single review.
Marking points
评分要点
- Because the technology, the ways it is used and society's expectations all keep changing over time.
- A guideline written for one set of capabilities becomes outdated once the technology gains new powers or reaches new contexts, so it must be revisited repeatedly, not reviewed once.
- 因为技术、它的使用方式和社会的期望都随时间持续变化。
- 为某一组能力写的准则,一旦技术获得新能力或进入新场景就会过时,所以必须反复重新审视,而不是审查一次。
[4]Discuss one implication of augmented reality and one implication of virtual reality for individual rights.
Marking points
评分要点
- Augmented reality: one implication for individual rights, for example always-on cameras and overlays can record and display information about bystanders without their consent.
- Virtual reality: one implication for individual rights, for example immersive systems collect fine-grained behavioural and biometric data and can be used to manipulate or isolate the user.
- Both raise questions of consent, privacy and autonomy for the people involved.
- 增强现实:对个人权利的一个影响,例如常开的摄像头和叠加显示可能在旁观者不同意的情况下记录并显示关于他们的信息。
- 虚拟现实:对个人权利的一个影响,例如沉浸式系统收集细粒度的行为和生物特征数据,并可能被用来操纵或孤立用户。
- 两者都为相关人员引出同意、隐私和自主的问题。
[8]A city plans to deploy pervasive AI throughout its public transport network, embedded in ticketing, security cameras and route planning. Discuss the ethical aspects of this integration, referring to society, individual rights, privacy and equity.
Marking points
评分要点
- Society: embedding AI throughout transport normalises constant monitoring and shifts power toward whoever runs the systems; the public may have no meaningful choice to opt out.
- Individual rights: automated decisions in ticketing and security can restrict a person's movement or flag them with limited recourse or explanation.
- Privacy: combining data from ticketing, cameras and route planning allows detailed tracking of individuals that no single system reveals, so data minimisation and consent matter.
- Equality of access: if the system disadvantages people without smartphones, or misidentifies some groups more often, it widens existing gaps.
- Accountability and transparency: it must be clear who is responsible for errors and how citizens can challenge them.
- The city should weigh efficiency and safety benefits against these harms, with oversight, transparency, data limits and an accessible appeal route.
- A strong answer addresses society, individual rights, privacy and equality of access explicitly.
- 社会:在整个交通系统中嵌入人工智能会使持续监控成为常态,并把权力转向运营系统的一方;公众可能没有有意义的选择退出。
- 个人权利:售票和安防中的自动化决策可能限制一个人的行动,或在申诉和解释有限的情况下标记他们。
- 隐私:把售票、摄像头和路线规划的数据结合起来,可以对个人进行任何单一系统都不会暴露的详细追踪,所以数据最小化和同意很重要。
- 获取的平等:如果系统使没有智能手机的人处于劣势,或更频繁地误识别某些群体,它会扩大现有差距。
- 问责与透明:必须明确谁对错误负责,以及公民如何对其提出异议。
- 该市应权衡效率和安全收益与这些伤害,并配以监督、透明度、数据限制和一条可及的申诉途径。
- 好的答案会明确论及社会、个人权利、隐私和获取的平等。
Flashcards
Active recall for this statement’s key terms.
Keep this statement’s practice with you
Free account: unlock every revision question and flashcard for A4.4.2, and every other IB CS 2027 statement.