Bernd Stahl

Ethical and social consequences of digital technologies

I am interested in the way that the development and use of digital technologies influences and shapes the way we live. Digital technologies are pervasive and affect all aspects of our lives. This is often intended and beneficial but can also have unintended and detrimental effects. I try to understand what these effects can be, how we can find out about them and what can be done to amplify positive consequences and minimise negative ones.

I started out my academic life as an industrial engineer and for a while expected that I would spend my life building cars or other types of machinery. But I noticed early on that engineering decisions have consequences that go far beyond the immediate reach of the technology itself. Having enjoyed philosophy in school, I started a part-time distance degree in philosophy and ended up addressing the question of responsibility for and in technology development. This was in the late 1990s and I have stayed with the topic ever since.

Most of my work revolves around research projects. This includes the identification of opportunities, the development of proposals and, if successful, the delivery of the project and the creation of promised outputs, notably including publications. The empirical research I do tends to be social science oriented, often involving methods such as interviews, focus groups, Delphi studies etc. Wherever possible, I still try to get involved in the practical work of data collection and analysis, even though the bulk of it is normally done by others.

I enjoy the creative process of coming up with new ideas, developing and shaping them and, if all goes well, seeing them succeed. Some of this is an individual task where I sit down and draw up concepts and ideas but much of it is made up of collaborative activities where I work with colleagues and partners to ensure that the ideas are sound and cover all the aspects they should cover. On top of that, and closely linked to the topics of my research, I hope that the outcome of all of this is that I make the world a slightly better place.

I have faced many of the usual challenges that you encounter in research. Sometimes the research simply does not work or does not produce the insights you want and then you have to reconsider and try other avenues. The most difficult problems tend to be interpersonal conflicts where a whole project can get stuck because people don’t get along, take critique personally or refuse to collaborate. I believe that most academics are in principle interested in collaborating and thus trust in the ability of open and honest communication to solve such problems. That usually works, but not always.

In the last few years I have worked a lot in the area of ethics and artificial intelligence (AI). One outcome of this work is that I think that a lot of the AI ethics debate focuses too much on specific technologies and applications which leads it to neglect of the higher level systems-oriented problems. For example, there is a lot of work on explainability of AI to avoid discrimination, which is no doubt an important field of activity. But I think the broader questions such as the justice of distribution in a society, including the distribution of benefits arising from AI have more impact and call for more attention.

I see my work as a contribution to the broader discussion of how modern societies can use technologies in ways that allow them to achieve their aims. This requires a conversation of what the aims of society are, how we justify them and how we can then employ digital and other technologies to move closer to them. I try to contribute to the different aspects of this discussion. It is not in my gift (or anybody else’s for that matter) to give comprehensive answers to these complex question, but I hope that by making academically robust contributions to these questions that I can contribute to making the world a little better.

Being based in computer science, most of our students are technically gifted, but not all of them have engaged in reflecting about the broader consequences of the technologies they are likely to develop and use after their studies. I see my teaching as a way of engaging with them and hopefully inspiring them to see that these broader questions are firstly fascinating and secondly form part of their future professional responsibilities.

I have no regrets about my research pathway, so cannot really tell my younger research self to do anything fundamentally different. I realise that I was lucky in many ways. For example, I chose a research topic that 25 years ago was very obscure and marginal. The ever-growing prominence of digital technologies, e.g. through the development of personal computers, the internet, social media, mobile devices etc. has helped move the topic to centre stage. Similarly, I collected academic qualifications that seemed disparate but helped me to forge a research career that was not based on any long-term plans. I guess my good piece of advice would be: if you see an opportunity, then make the best of it and don’t let it go to waste.