The more I look at ethics the more fascinated I become.

The world is changing at such a pace that the law just isn’t keeping up, and we desperately need a moral imperative to keep us on the right track. It’s easy for a company to keep on designing and building new tech without any regard for how it will be used in the future. This has become apparent with the recent stories of drones being used to smuggle drugs and other contraband across prison walls and borders.  And the companies that are replacing their human workforces with computers.

But can we just stop developing new technologies because it could have a negative impact on humans. What about the good it can do? Such as robots that can be sent into disaster zones that are unsafe for humans to enter.

Fortunately, some governments are beginning to take notice of the new technologies and their ‘downsides’, and are proposing new legislation or ‘ethics frameworks’.

Anon (2015) Drone carrying drugs crashes near US-Mexico border. Available from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-30931367 [Accessed 23 January 2015].

Gillmore, D. (2013) With robots and data, can Google keep to its promise not to be evil?. Available from: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/19/google-robots-data-boston-dynamics-possibilities [Accessed 25 January 2015].

Lo, A. (2015) Debate over artificial intelligence raises moral, legal and technical questions | South China Morning Post. Available from: http://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/technology/article/1690723/debate-over-artificial-intelligence-raises-moral-legal-and [Accessed 25 January 2015].