
Most Firms Lack the Ethical Guidelines that Govern Emerging Technology
CIO Review APAC | Thursday, December 29, 2022

A new Deloitte report discusses the importance of ethics, the types of misuse of new technologies, and approaches companies can take to operationalize standards.
FREMONT, CA: When it comes to applying ethical frameworks and leading practices to emerging technologies, the entrepreneurial disruption phase of “move fast and break things” is being replaced by the motto of “move fast and keep up”.
The first-ever State of Ethics and Trust in Technology annual study describes emerging technologies, establishes reliable and ethical standards, outlines several methods for operationalising standards, and promotes immediate action.
Stay ahead of the industry with exclusive feature stories on the top companies, expert insights and the latest news delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe today.
A Laser Focus on Emerging Technologies
Businesses desire to be at the forefront of emerging technologies to remain competitive and benefit from advantages, including enhanced customer experiences, operational efficiencies, and newly enabled use cases.
However, the paper stated that because new technologies are frequently developed at rapid speeds, few businesses pause to evaluate the ethical ramifications. Great power entails enormous responsibility. Emerging technologies offer new opportunities, but they also carry the risk of being abused.
Emerging technologies are important developments in a given field that are represented by digitally enabled tools. They are divided into several categories, such as distributed ledger technology, quantum computing, robots, digital reality, and cognitive technologies.
According to survey respondents, cognitive technologies (33 per cent), virtual reality (14 per cent) and autonomous cars (11 per cent) are the emerging technologies with the greatest potential for societal impact. In contrast, the report found that respondents also named cognitive technologies (41 per cent) as well as digital reality (16 per cent) and distributed ledger technology (13 per cent) as the technologies with the greatest potential for significant ethical harm.
One of the most interesting findings was that, except for cognitive technologies, 87 per cent of respondents claimed they did not have any clear ethical principles regulating developing technology or were unsure if they did.
Only 47 per cent of respondents said their organisations update their broad, overarching trustworthy and ethical standards for emerging technologies at least once a year.
Therefore, the paper cautioned that while new technologies promise a wide range of advantages, businesses that offer emerging technology products and services should keep ethical considerations on top of mind if they wish to secure near- and long-term value. Companies that underestimate or overlook the ethical problems raised by developing technology run the danger of suffering numerous types of harm.
A Chinese drone maker, for instance, was subject to investment restrictions by the U.S. Treasury Department as a result of its facilitation of the torture of Uyghur Muslims and other racial and religious minorities in China.
More in News