Mohamed HassanProject Management Consultant, Author and Speaker| LIFELONGKuwait, Kuwait
Individual privacy rights?, potential job losses, people rights, balancing revenue against the trust., unanticipated consequences of innovations., decision-making by machines? are some of the ethical challenges that we are facing in the digital world.
How can we deal with them?
If you know more challenges, please add them and share your thoughts. Saving Changes...
One ethical challenge that often occurs with technology that replaces human effort involves sabotage. The word itself comes from workers throwing wooden shoes (sabots) into machinery to disrupt production.
When workers see their jobs being replaced or requiring new skills, they are often threatened by the change. For an expert drafter who has used pen on mylar for 20 years and now becomes a novice CAD operator, that is often not a welcome career change and they may look for ways to obstruct the incorporation of digital technology. That can in turn lead to age discrimination when hiring and downsizing as a collateral ethical challenge. Saving Changes...
Albert AgbemenuManaging Director| Seag Focus Ghana LtdAccra, Ghana
One of the significant reasons people wonder if automation is ethical is the anxiety it creates amongst employees who fear they might be replaced with robots or technology. When automated technology is first introduced, employees question their job security, and chances are it will cause panic and stress, dipping morale and affecting their output.
As a project manager, you must assure your team of their role and responsibilities on the project. Clearly state the purpose of installing automation software or technology as an assistant and not a replacement for team members. Saving Changes...
Amany NuseibehSpeaker, Global Leader | Optimal ConsultingSydney, Nsw, Australia
Thank you @Mohamed for posting this interesting question.
The one that worries me the most is "unintended ethical consequences", where any digitization "inherits" human intentional and/or unintentional bias and blind spots leading to "discriminations and racisms".
Relying too much on automation might lead to very serious negative results.
A relatively recent example from Australia is "Robodebts" "Robodebt” is the label commonly applied to the initiative starting in 2016 designed to increase recoveries by government of “overpayments” made to social security recipients, retrospectively dating back to 2010.
As there was no or very little human vetting of the results, chasing up people to recover alleged debts, including automatically taking money from their bank accounts led to suicides and serious mental illnesses. The controversial system was ruled unlawful last year, with the Federal Court saying "Centrelink" could not have been satisfied the debt was correct.
The government wound back the scheme prior to the court decision. in 2020, this resulted in half a million Australians to receive refunds over robodebts. Saving Changes...
