If we abandon or restrict discussions of the singularity or superintelligence, and if this event were to transition from prediction to reality, our ethical and policy preparations would be insufficient, and the public, lacking prior expectation, would fall into even greater panic.
The challenge before researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and industry is not simply to build smarter medical technologies, but to design socio–technical ecosystems that responsibly integrate these technologies into society.
As modern armed forces rely more heavily on data-driven intelligence systems and algorithmically assisted analysis, the risk emerges that errors originating in outdated information, flawed databases, or automation bias may propagate rapidly through the operational decision-making chain.
There has never been a more crucial moment for IEEE SSIT to lead this conversation on ethics across IEEE.
The concept of broadcasting had its roots in a form of the telephone: a technique of narrowcasting where wealthy people could subscribe to have a second telephone line connected to their home.
The designers, engineers, and computer scientists we teach today will shape the systems of tomorrow–we need to teach them to center justice, not just solve problems.
When AI algorithms fail or deviate from their intended outcomes, resulting in negative impacts on society, they themselves cannot be held accountable since they are not moral agents. Although engineers may not be the sole owners of a language model, their involvement in the chain of operation requires a sense of collaborative accountability.
Aligning design with collective care refocuses requirements for development toward safety, accountability, and the real networks that deliver care. Until the design of digital technologies matches the accessibility and reliability of the paperbased binder system, the binder remains the more ethical coordination tool for communication and continuity in complex home care.
Since many forms of lifestyle monitoring are “untraditional”—that is to say, they are novel, often experimental, and do not track hard quantifiable biomedical parameters—it is perhaps unsurprising that few options exist to defray costs for older adults and their care partners.
Calling something intelligent, even artificially intelligent, ever so subtly implies that it is more than just a thing, more than a tool. And yet, that is precisely what AI is: a tool, a thing.
FDA’s benefit–Risk assessment is an integrated judgment about the meaningfulness of benefit, the acceptability of risk, and the tolerance of uncertainty. But no matter how well clinical evaluations are designed and implemented, some remaining uncertainty about a drug’s benefits and risks is inevitable at the time of a new drug approval decision because of the inherent limitations of clinical trials.
Whereas artificial intelligence and technological innovation continue to be heralded as producing ground-breaking advancements in society, the question of whether they will break free from Western technology’s cultural hegemony remains to be seen.
Opting in to the tech we want and need means being intentional with technology choices and time.
The question is no longer whether children will hear from AI because they already do; the real question is whether what they hear will be framed with care, context, and human intention, or left to the indifferent fluency of an algorithm optimized for prediction, not truth.
The notion that AI, however defined, is a new thing, acting upon us, requesting that we obey its dictates, raises immediate contradictions with the concept of self-governance and human agency, which are the cornerstone of the Enlightenment ideal of humans harnessing rationality and ethics for a common good.
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine solicits applications for the position of Book Review Editor.
A. David Wunsch has developed the reviews section into a much appreciated feature of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine, and we seek to continue that tradition.
In the American Southwest, and increasingly around the world, extreme heat creates conditions that are not merely uncomfortable but physiologically dangerous, multiplying the already staggering risks of homelessness.
AI firms have harnessed vast amounts of capital from other technology companies, and they have used it to create a hugely disruptive technology.
Submitted by Murty Polavarapu This notice is reprinted from the March 2026 issue of the SSIT Insights newsletter. We… Read More
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