Computing Ethics: Moral Principles & Conduct

Ethics

• Ethics includes the field of moral science and the moral principles by which a person is guided
• Ethics include the rules of conduct recognized in a particular profession
• Rules of conduct of computer scientists and developers must reflect moral principles
• Moral principles concern right and wrong
• Concepts of virtue may determine what is considered right
• Judgements of what is right and wrong may be: philosophical, religious, legal, or pragmatic
• Philosophical debate on the nature of right and wrong has been occurring for millennia
• Religions may have incorporated philosophies, or introduced their own
• Laws should reflect what is thought to be right and wrong
• Pragmatism can be defined as applying common sense

The computing professional

• Any professional is expected to act ethically
• A professional can receive guidance on ethical behavior by joining an appropriate professional organization
• Organizations often have a code of conduct that include reference to ethical practice
• The British Computer Society (BCS) has a code of conduct that gives guidance under four headings: Public Interest, Professional Competence and Integrity, Duty to Relevant Authority, Duty to the Profession
• The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) are both based in the USA but have a global perspective and influence
• The IEEE-CS/ACM Joint Task Force Software Engineering Code of Ethics defines eight principles

IEEE-CS/ACM Joint Task Force Software Engineering Code of Ethics principles

• PUBLIC - Software engineers shall act consistently with the public interest
• CLIENT AND EMPLOYER – Software engineers shall act in a manner that is in the best interests of their client and employer consistent with the public interest
• PRODUCT - Software engineers shall ensure that their products and related modifications meet the highest professional standards possible
• JUDGEMENT – Software engineers shall maintain integrity and independence in their professional judgement
• MANAGEMENT – Software engineering managers and leaders shall subscribe to and promote an ethical approach to the management of software development and maintenance
• PROFESSION – Software engineers shall advance the integrity and reputation of the profession consistent with the public interest
• COLLEAGUES – Software engineers shall be fair to and supportive of their colleagues
• SELF - Software engineers shall participate in lifelong learning regarding the practice of their profession and shall promote an ethical approach to the practice of the profession

Code differences

• The codes are consistent despite the differences in the detail with regard to the following: the public interest, contain fundamental principles, exercise judgement, seek advice if unsure

The public good

• Different parts of the IEEE-CS/ACM standards reference: the health, safety and welfare of the public, the public interest, the public good, and public concern
• The BCS code states that practitioners should have due regard for public health, privacy, security and wellbeing of others and the environment
• Few examples involved loss of life, though there have been a number of incidents where extremely large sums of money were wasted because of rather simplistic errors
• The Ariane 5 rocket exploded 40 seconds after blast-off in 1996 due to a code error that tried to convert a 64-bit floating point number into a 16-bit integer costing $500 million
• The NASA Mars Climate Orbiter project was lost because one group of software engineers used the Imperial system of units, a mismatch that only became obvious when calculations concerned with achieving orbit around Mars were executed costing $125 million
• In 2011 the UK government scrapped the National Programme for IT in the NHS (National Health Service), commissioned in 2002 which failed to produce a workable system, spending 12 billion pounds
• Examples of ethical concerns: Powerful companies pressuring smaller ones, systems not guaranteeing security, organizations concealing security breaches, private data being stored, social media allowing abusive content, search engines providing low-quality content

Ownership and copyright

• Copyright is a formal recognition of ownership
• If an individual creates and publishes some original work they become the copyright holder
• An organization can claim copyright for a published work if it is created by its employees
• Copyright does not apply to an idea, or to any part of a published work that was previously published by someone else
• Copyright can apply to literary (written), musical, films, music recordings, radio & TV broadcast, work of art, and computer programs
• The justification for the existence of copyright is to allow copyright holders to earn money, and prevent unauthorized reproduction

Copyright Law

• Copyright law should include: a requirement for registration recording the date of creation of the work; a defined period when copyright will apply; a policy to be applied if an individual holding copyright dies; an agreed method for indicating the copyright, (ex. the use of the © symbol)
• Under copyright law, one can include a statement concerning how the work might be used. For instance, the ACM has the following statement relating to the code of ethics is under copyright: this code may be published without permission as long as it is not changed

Software licensing

• Commercial software is created and sold by a company aiming to make a profit
• If you buy software you do not become the owner, the ownership remains with the vendor
• The buyer is paying for an end-user licence which allows you to use the software with options available: a fee is paid for each individual copy of the software and a company might have the option of buying a site licence which allows a defined number of copies to be running at any one time
• Shareware is commercial software which is made available on a trial basis for a limited time possibly the full version, or a limited version, possibly a beta version
• Freeware may be a limited version of a full package or possibly an earlier version which has no time limit

Commercial software uses

• Commercial software can be justified when: software is available for immediate use and provides the functionality required; the software has been created to be used in conjunction with install software; there will be maintenance and support; one can make improvements and freeware can offer sufficient functionality
• For open licensing there are two major operations under way - global non-profit organizations - and they are very similar in their objectives
• The Open Source Initiative enables collaborative development and is normally made available free of charge which the user can use, modify, copy or distribute following the terms defined by the license
• Free Software Foundation philosophy dictates that users should be free to use software in any way they wish and there is a small fee to cover distribution costs
• A special feature of the license is copyleft, if the software is modified the source code must be made available to other users under the same conditions of usage

Open source software uses

• Open source software can be justified when: full functionality requirements can be provided at a nominal cost, functionality can be provided with a few modifications to the source code, a consortium of developers are collaborating in producing a new software suite and the future software is controlled by the user

Artificial intelligence (AI)

• Artificial intelligence (AI) depends on and draws from many other disciplines including: philosophy, psychology, neuroscience, mathematics, linguistics and control engineering
• AI includes use of computers and computer-controlled devices to perform tasks normally associated with intelligent behavior by humans like: problem solving, linguistics, perception, reasoning and learning

Al examples and impact

• The development of systems that can play chess, or expert systems developed for medical diagnosis
• Traditional robots in manufacturing processes perform repetitive tasks.
• AI allows robots to be programmed with sensors enabling them to take appropriate action depending on the information received from them. such as a driverless car
• Al programs are able to draw inferences (reach conclusions based on evidence) such as proving mathematical theorems
• Al systems utilize machine learning by improving its performance by experiencing massive sets of data and learning through statistical algorithms
• The use of the Internet dominates user activity on a global scale; however, this data must be secured, and not be used for criminal activity
• Robot manufacture and disposal causes environmental concerns due to construction materials and waste