Bio

As a researcher in AI and Ethics at VIVES, I am sometimes asked what interests me so much about ethics. My answer is actually another question: “Why not?” Ethical reflection allows you to think actively about how society innovates. It gives you the opportunity to help imagine and shape part of the future.

Ethics Is About More Than Following Rules

This is precisely where I encounter many misconceptions. There is a widespread belief that ethics primarily slows down innovation. After all, is ethics not mainly concerned with limits and with what we are not allowed to do? Does it not therefore obstruct every new development?

For me, however, ethics is not a brake but an accelerator for technology and innovation.

This does not mean, of course, that frameworks and boundaries are unnecessary. But ethical reflection is not primarily about following a particular ethical framework. There must certainly be limits, and I am by no means arguing that ethical boundaries should be abandoned. Yet for me, that is precisely where the greater part of ethical thinking still has to begin.

If we compare ethics to football, the ethical framework can be compared to the lines on the pitch. The lines are necessary, but they are not what makes a match worth watching. They merely define the space within which the game can be played. Ethics is concerned not only with the boundaries, but also with how the game is played.

Within the field of ethics, we find numerous frameworks at European level, at Flemish level and often at the level of individual companies and organisations. If we regard these boundaries as the only ethical element, we risk not only losing sight of the forest for the trees, but also, paradoxically, eliminating ethics and ethical reflection themselves. Moreover, we miss the innovative potential of ethics.

Ethics as Process Facilitation

The true innovative potential of ethics becomes visible when we ask how the game should be played. Ethics is not about ticking boxes to determine what is or is not permitted, but about asking what the best course of action is within a particular context.

In ancient Greece, Aristotle spoke of practical wisdom: the wisdom required to work with and beyond general rules in order to identify the right action in concrete circumstances. From this perspective, ethics is context-dependent and concerns both the process and its substantive outcomes.

To use ethics as a driver of innovation, we should therefore focus on ethics as a process. Such a process-oriented approach initiates a conversation about which values we want our technologies to realise. This requires a bottom-up approach.

Every technology has the potential either to realise or to undermine particular values. The conversation with stakeholders should therefore focus on which values ought to be realised. It is the stakeholders themselves who identify the values they consider important.

For a company, it may also be useful to include its corporate values, provided that these are genuinely shared and embedded within the organisation. Other values, such as those found in the European Union’s documents on human-centred AI, can also be introduced into the discussion.

A conversation with stakeholders produces valuable information and almost always results in a richer understanding of how technology can be designed and implemented.

At first sight, bringing all stakeholders together may appear cumbersome. At the same time, however, greater involvement increases mutual understanding and strengthens the impact of the technology. From there, further reflection can take place on how the technology should be developed, which policies are required and what the technology means for human beings and presupposes of them.

An Ethical Commitment from Companies

Naturally, a strong emphasis on process not only stimulates innovation, but also requires a significant commitment from companies.

First, a form of leadership is needed that creates sufficient space for the ethical process to unfold fully.

Second, a process-oriented approach requires organisations to strengthen the ethical capabilities of everyone involved.

Third, within a corporate context, there is a need for someone who can facilitate this process by combining ethical expertise with coaching skills.