Research &amp; Publications

Research & Publications

As the new director of the IWE and holder of an Alexander von Humboldt Professorship for Applied Ethics of Artificial Intelligence, Prof. Dr. van Wynsberghe introduces a new research focus to the IWE. This new focus strives to provide robust and comprehensive grounding to public policy guidelines for the green, proportionate and sustainable development and use of AI. To this end, the Sustainable AI Lab has been established within the IWE to further this line of research.

The research pillars of the IWE are:

The Ethics of AI and Robotics

Principle Lead: Prof. Dr. Aimee van Wynsberghe

The pervasive development and use of robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) in the 21st century has brought optimism for progress along with concern for the stewardship of societal values and human rights. The IWE pillar for the ethics of robotics/ai deals with the impact of these technologies on: the lives of individuals, infrastructures and global society. It explores the range of ethical questions pertaining to each stage in the life cycle of robotics/ai, including idea generation, development, usage, and governance. Researchers in this pillar build on conceptual tools from ethics of technology, environmental ethics, and care ethics, to name a few.

Publications

(together with Scott Robbins): Our New Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure: Becoming Locked into an Unsustainable Future (2022), in: Sustainability 2022, 14(8), 4829
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/su14084829
(together with Larissa Bolte and Tijs Vandemeulebroucke): From an Ethics of Carefulness to an Ethics of Desirability: Going Beyond Current Ethics Approaches to Sustainable AI (2022), in: Sustainability 2022, 14(8), 4472
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/su14084472
Sustainable AI: AI for sustainability and the sustainability of AI »opinion paper«, February 26th, 2021, Bonn (online)
(together with Scott Robbins): Critiquing the Reasons for Making Artificial Moral Agents (2018), in: Science and Engineering Ethics 25 (2019), 719–735.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-018-0030-833343
(together with Justin Donhauser): The Dawning of the Ethics of Environmental Robots (2017), in: Science and Engineering Ethics 24 (2018), 1777–1800.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-017-9990-3444
Service robots, care ethics, and design (2016), in: Ethics and Information Technology 18 (2016), 311–321.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10676-016-9409-x555
Designing Robots for Care: Care Centered Value-Sensitive Design (2013), in: Science and Engineering Ethics 19 (2013), 407–433.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-011-9343-6666
(together with Scott Robbins): Ethicist as Designer: A Pragmatic Approach to Ethics in the Lab (2014), in: Science and Engineering Ethics 20 (2014), 947–961.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-013-9498-4777
Healthcare Robots – Ethics, Design and Implementation (Ashgate, 2015)
Link: https://www.routledge.com/products/isbn/9781472444332888
(together with Chris Gastmans): Telesurgery: An Ethical Appraisal (2008), in: Journal of Medical Ethics 34(10), e22
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/jme.2007.0239529

Environmental Ethics

Principle Lead: Dr. Taylor Stone

The IWE undertakes both conceptual and practical research into the ethical dimensions of environmental issues. The 21st century will bring unprecedented environmental challenges requiring urgent action, including climate change, biodiversity loss, deforestation, rapid urbanization, and pollution. Alongside political action and technical innovation is a continued need to analyze the moral foundations of the problems – and proposed solutions – created by these environmental challenges. Conceptual research includes topics such as intergenerational (climate) justice, the geographical dualism of built and natural environments, and the philosophical foundations of wilderness preservation. This is complimented by practical research on topics including animal welfare and animal rights, policy guidelines for emerging technologies, the environmental costs of healthcare technologies, and urban sustainability.

Publications

Nagenborg, M., Stone, T., González Woge, M., & Vermaas, P. (2021). Technology and the City: Towards a Philosophy of Urban Technologies. Springer.
https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-52313-8
Stone, T., Dijkstra, I., & Danielse, T. (2021). Dark Acupuncture: A Design Strategy for Sustainable Lighting. International Journal of Sustainable Lighting, 23(2): 70-87.
https://lightingjournal.org/index.php/path/article/view/112/114
Stone, T. (2021). Design for Values and the City. Journal of Responsible Innovation.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23299460.2021.1909813
van Grunsven, J., Marin, L., Stone, T., Roeser, S., & Doorn, N. (2021). How to Teach Engineering Ethics? A Retrospective and Prospective Sketch of the TU Delft Approach. Advances in Engineering Education, 9(3): 1-11.
https://advances.asee.org/how-to-teach-engineering-ethics-a-retrospective-and-prospective-sketch-of-tu-delfts-approach-to-engineering-ethics-education/
Stone, T. (2021). Re-envisioning the Nocturnal Sublime: On the Ethics and Aesthetics of Nighttime Lighting. Topoi: An International Review of Philosophy, 40(2): 481-491.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11245-018-9562-4
Robbins, H., Stone, T., Bolte, J., & van den Hoven, J. (2021). Legibility as a Design Principle: Surfacing Values in Sensing Technologies. Science, Technology, & Human Values, 45(5): 1104-1135.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0162243920975488

NeuroEthics

Principle Lead: Prof. Dr. Bert Heinrichs

Neuroethics, broadly conceived, is the branch of applied ethics that deals with scientific research and technological developments related to the human brain. This includes imaging techniques that provide insight into how the brain works which and are used for both scientific and medical purposes. It also includes (invasive and non-invasive) interventions to alter brain states. Topics of neuroethics currently under intense discussion are, for example, issues of neuroenhancement and brain-computer interfaces, but also, specific issues of informed consent, e.g. in Alzheimer’s research. Moreover, neuroethics is increasingly focusing on the use of AI. Of particular interest here are questions of human-machine interaction as well as the prediction of brain diseases and personality traits. IWE's work aims to better understand such philosophical and ethical issues and to develop approaches that enable responsible research and implementation.

Publications

Rathkopf, Charles; Heinrichs, Jan-Hendrik; Heinrichs, Bert (2022): Can we read minds by imaging brains? In: Philosophical Psychology (ahead-of-print). https://doi.org/10.1080/09515089.2022.2041590.
Heinrichs, Bert (2022): Discrimination in the Age of AI. In: AI & Society 37, 143–154. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-021-01192-2.
Heinrichs, Bert; Knell, Sebastian (2021): Aliens in the Space of Reasons? On the Interaction Between Humans and Artificial Intelligent Agents. In: Philosophy & Technology 34, 1569–1580. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13347-021-00475-2.
Heinrichs, Bert (2021): Advance research directives: avoiding double standards. In: BMC Med Ethics 22, 137. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12910-021-00704-5.
Eickhoff, Simon B.; Heinrichs, Bert (2021): Der vorhersagbare Mensch: Zu Chancen und Risiken der KI-basierten Prädiktion von kognitiven Fähigkeiten, Persönlichkeitsmerkmalen und psychischen Erkrankungen. In: Der Nervenarzt 92, 1140–1148. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00115-021-01197-8.
Knell, Sebastian; Heinrichs, Bert (2021): Entfremdung im Raum der Gründe. Überlegungen zur möglichen Transformation diskursiver Praktiken durch Künstliche Intelligenz, in: Scheidewege 51, 52-74.
Heinrichs, Bert (2021): Is it possible to simulate “thought”? In: Benetka, Gerhard; Werbik, Hans (eds.): Discussing Cognitive Neuroscience. Psychology, Neurophysiology, and Philosophy on the Mind, Body and Brain. Cham: Springer, 153-163. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-71040-8_8.
Heinrichs, Bert; Eickhoff, Simon B. (2020): Your Evidence? Machine Learning Algorithms for Medical Diagnosis and Prediction. In: Human Brain Mapping 41, 1435–1444. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.24886.
Heinrichs, Bert (2020): 学・道徳生理学・行為の根拠 [Neurosiences, Moral Physiology, Reasons for Action]. In: Yasushi Kato, Takeshi Kojima (eds.): 尊厳と社会（上) [Dignity and Society 1]. Hosei University Press, 297-318.
Heinrichs, Bert; Rüther, Markus (2020): Was tut der Mensch, der handelt? Christine M. Korsgaard. In: Müller-Salo, Johannes (ed.): Themen analytischer Philosophie. Eine Einführung in 16 Fragen und Antworten. Paderborn: Wilhelm Fink / UTB, 157-172.
Heinrichs, Bert (2020): Aristotelian Naturalism and the Concept of Person. In. Hähnel, Martin (ed.): Aristotelian Naturalism: A Research Companion, Berlin: Springer, 425–439.
Heinrichs, Bert (2019): Myth or Magic? Towards a Revised Theory of Informed Consent in Medical Research. In: Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 44, 33–49. https://doi.org/10.1093/jmp/jhy034.

Artificial Intelligence, Politics and Power

Principle Lead: Dr. Şebnem Yardımcı Geyikçi

The research pillar Artificial Intelligence, Politics and Power analyses the transformation of civil society, the public sphere, and the state in the new age of artificial intelligence. The redefinition of institutions, interests and interactions are key components of this transformation. The increasing use of AI in decision-making processes affects the nature of accountability and transparency and changes the parameters of the distribution of power between the state and society. Therefore, what actors seek to achieve through political action, i.e. interests, takes on new meanings and forms. Similarly, interaction mechanisms, which can be defined as the set of relations between actors, are also being reorganised. For example, the use of AI in the public sphere creates new forms of political and social organisation with important implications for the future of democracy and civic participation. Studies have also shown that the advanced use of AI transforms the institutional structures that hold interests and interactions together. For instance, the development of new AI technologies challenges the traditional ways in which political systems are organised. Given these complex shifts, the AI, Politics and Power research pillar aims to contribute to a critical understanding of this transformation by uncovering the ever-changing relationships between state, society and public sphere that will shape the future of politics. This research strand is inspired by the Data Pollution and Power Project conducted in 2022 at the Sustainable AI Lab.