Digital Ethics

As a branch of ethics or practical philosophy, digital ethics tackles moral issues in the context of digital change. The digitalised world present us with specific challenges, in light of which the question of good and right action must be constantly renegotiated. The aim of ethical discourse is to critically accompany technological innovations and digitalisation processes to shape the future of society responsibly.

Against this background, research at the Humboldt Centre addresses the area of Ethics of Artificial Intelligence. We engage in questions relating to the philosophy of technology, encompassing AI systems in general, as well as the challenges that arise in relation to specific AI applications, such as autonomous driving. We are particularly interested in problems that lie between machine ethics on the one hand and the ethics of algorithms on the other. Our research aims to develop and critically evaluate approaches inspired by the notion of ethics by design, integrating perspectives from the field of ethics of risk.

An additional strand of research focuses on the analysis of AI systems in medical application contexts. The explainability of algorithmic diagnostic procedures, as well as fundamental philosophical questions concerning machine learning methods, are at the centre of this research.

Furthermore, we develop interdisciplinary and innovative teaching concepts in the field of digital ethics. These are characterised by an underlying concept that combines the transfer of knowledge between teaching and research on the one hand and the tension between technological development and social participation on the other. The course Informatik und Gesellschaft, for instance, conveys a basic understanding of the concepts and problems of political philosophy, as well as argumentation skills based on current examples from computer science. The fact that students achieve outstanding results in these formats is due in equal measure to the committed personal support they receive and their motivation to engage in an exciting debate.