Ethical Issues of Robotics and Artificial Intelligence in Business Organizations and Society

MSc Information Systems Management
IMAT5262 Research, Ethics
& Professionalism in
Computing
Assignment - Project Proposal
Robotics and AI
Pxxxxxxxx
De Montfort University

P Number: Pxxxxxxxx IMAT5262 Research, Ethics & Professionalism in
Abstract
The ethical issues regarding the use of robotics and artificial intelligence is
increasing each day which can have direct negative impact in our society as well as
in business organizations. The ethical issues of Robotics and Artificial Intelligence
are needed to be solved in the first place so that desired results are obtained from
these automated technologies.
This research proposal will be having numerous sections and each if the section will
be very much important to fund the effectiveness of the paper. This research paper
will be considering both the primary as well as secondary data collection method.
Both these two types of data collection method will be very much important to
understand the topic from different perspectives.
Key Words
Professional Code of conduct, algorithmic bias, Work Ethics, Artificial Intelligence.
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P Number: Pxxxxxxxx IMAT5262 Research, Ethics & Professionalism in
Contents
1. Background..........................................................................................................4
2. Research questions.............................................................................................4
3. Literature Review.................................................................................................5
3.1. Overview of surveillance.................................................................................5
3.2. Surveillance in the workplace and reasons to why it is used..........................6
3.3. Types of surveillance techniques and tools....................................................7
4. Methodology Review...........................................................................................8
4.1. Interviews........................................................................................................8
4.2. Questionnaires................................................................................................8
4.3. Surveys............................................................................................................9
4.4. Focus Groups..................................................................................................9
4.5. Case Studies.................................................................................................10
4.6. Chosen Methodologies..................................................................................10
4.6.1. Interview..................................................................................................10
4.6.2. Survey.....................................................................................................11
5. Conclusion..........................................................................................................12
6. Project Plan........................................................................................................13
7. Ethical Issues.....................................................................................................13
8. Consent Form.....................................................................................................13
9. Pilot interview questions...................................................................................13
10. Pilot survey questions and design...............................................................13
11. References......................................................................................................14
12. Appendices.....................................................................................................17
12.1. Appendix A.................................................................................................17
12.2. Appendix B.................................................................................................19
12.3. Appendix C.................................................................................................25
12.4. Appendix D.................................................................................................27
12.5. Appendix E.................................................................................................28
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P Number: Pxxxxxxxx IMAT5262 Research, Ethics & Professionalism in
1. Background
The application of the robotics and artificial intelligence is increasing every day in both
business enterprises as well as in our society. The use of these automated technologies have both
positive as well as negative impact (Berg 2018). The positives of the use of the robotics in business
organizations is the enhanced business sales of this organization as well as enhanced business
reputation of the organization due to increased customer satisfaction (Bryson and Winfield 2017). At
the same time it can be also said that the daily activities in our society can be also improved with the
help of these automated technologies (Bryson 2016). However, there are numerous ethical issues
associated with the application of AI and robotics.
The foremost determination of this proposal is to investigate different types of robot ethics and
machine ethics associated with ethics of technology (Bryson 2018). The concept of roboethics will be
investigated in the first place with the help of the ethics of Artificial Intelligence. The moral agents
are responsible for the ethical issues associated with the help of the ethical considerations
(Coeckelbergh 2018). The following unit of the paper will be discussing the research questions which
will help to understand the topic in a broader way.
2. Research questions
 Are the users aware of the ethical issues of robotics and artificial intelligence?
 What are the ethical concerns regarding the use of the robotics in business organizations?
3. Literature Review
3.1. Overview of ethical issues of robotics and AI
According to Lin (2016), there are lots of ethical issues associated with the use of robotics and AI in
business organizations as well as in our society. The researcher of the paper stated that the main
ethical consideration regarding the use of robotics us the unemployment issues. The over use of the
automated systems are the reasons behind this ethical issue. The researcher of the paper also stated
about the application of the robotics also causes ethical issue such as inequality (Etzioni and Etzioni
2017). The application of the artificial intelligence also have lots of security issues which can have a
direct impact on your society (Lin 2018). The machine ethics can be also on of the security issue of
robotics which has to be managed in a professional way with the help of the IT exerts who knows
the insights of the automated technologies such as robotics and Artificial Intelligence.
There are lots of ethical issues associated with the use of robotics for the decision making of
business organizations. According to the researcher most of the AI driven business organizations
have ethical issues which have negative impact on the employers of the organization ( Lin, Abney,
and Jenkins 2017). Racist robots and the artificial stupidity are the other ethical issues associated
with the use of the AI based devices. Biasness of the AI based system is the other significant
advantage of robotics. Conscious experience is the other ethical issues associated with the use of
Artificial Intelligence in our society in terms of the speech recognition technology ( Malle et al. 216).
There are singularity associated with the use of robotics in society as well. This paper have
advantage as well as disadvantage (Fosch Villaronga, Tamò-Larrieux. and Lutz 2018). The prime
advantage of the paper is that it helps in understanding the most of the probable issue of robotics
and AI in our society as well as in business organization (O'sullivan et al. 2019). However, there are
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P Number: Pxxxxxxxx IMAT5262 Research, Ethics & Professionalism in
few limitations associated with the paper as well as the paper does not provides a case study to
support the discussion made in the paper.
3.2. Ethical issues in the workplace and reasons behind it
As stated by Pagallo (2016), there are lots of ethical issues associated with the application of robotics
in business organizations. The researcher of the paper also mentioned that negative marketing is the
other ethical issues associated with the application of robotics in sales and marketing. The
researcher of the paper stated that professional code of conduct should be maintained in business
organizations it would help them to deal with the ethical issues of workplaces ( Schürer et al. 2018).
The moral considerations are very much important to be managed in an organized manner with the
help of the professional IT governance plan (Haring et al. 2019). The researcher of the paper also
stated about the ethical issues of robotics such as the military robots, algorithmic bias, rules and
regulations (Stowers 2016). The paper have both advantages as well as disadvantages (Malle et al.
2019). The most significant advantage of the paper is that it helps in understanding the exact
reasons behind the ethical issues of robotics and Artificial Intelligence (Torresen 2018). The
limitation of the paper is that it does not discusses the human enforcement issues associated with
the use of the automated technologies in in terms of using Artificial Intelligence.
3.3. Ethical issues in our society and reasons behind it
As mentioned by Vallor and Bekey (2017), there are lots of ethical considerations associated with the
application of Artificial Intelligence in our society such as the issues if the self-driving technology. The
application of the machine learning techniques which are used in the investigative cases has
numerous ethical considerations. There are vision related issues of the robotics which can have a
direct negative impact on our society (Wallach and Marchant 2019). The researcher of the paper also
stated that the moral behaviour of the humans are also negatively impacted due to the over-use of
the Artificial Intelligence (Ivanov and Webster 2017). The researcher of the paper stated about the
bongards problems of the AI based devices which are used in our society as well. There are ethical
issues associated with object recognition which can have significant impact on society as well. There
are other risk regarding the overuse of the Artificial Intelligence system is the human health hazards
(Winfield 2019). The researcher of the paper also stated that the ethical codes are needed to be
maintained in our society as well so the effectiveness of the technologies are maintained ( Heiss
2017). The legal rights of the citizens can often violated with the use of the automated technologies
such as robotics. The complexities of the use of the automated technologies are the contribution of
the paper (Winfield and Jirotka 2017). The ethical issues associated with the use of AI was presented
by the researcher in a professional manner. The ethical dilemmas of using robotics are always a
concern in our society. As stated by the researcher, it can be said that the ethics in safety can have
significant negative effect in our society in terms of the work ethics and unpredictability of the
workers (Winfield et al. 2019). The unpredictable decisions of the robots are the other ethical
concerns regarding the use of the robotics technology in our society.
4. Methodology Review
This research proposal will be having numerous approaches which will be discussed in this section of
the paper. Even though there are advantages as well as limitations in most of the research
methodology approaches, both qualitative as well as quantitative approaches will be considered in
the research methodology section of this paper. The details of the data collection procedure of this
research proposal will be considered in the following unit of the paper.
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P Number: Pxxxxxxxx IMAT5262 Research, Ethics & Professionalism in
4.1. Interviews
The interview is considered as the qualitative research technique which involves the conduction of
personal interview from a participant which is aware of the selected topic of the research. Smaller
number of respondents helps in analysing the data in an organized manner. The opinion of the
participants will be very much important to understand the ethical issue in an investigative manner.
The main advantage of the personal interview is that it helps in investigating the topic from different
perspectives. Additional information can be also obtained with the help of personal interview. Open
ended questions are the other essential aspects of this data collection method. There are very less
concerns regarding the category of the interview. There are different types of interview which are
generally used in the research proposal such as the structure interview, unstructured interview as
well as the semi structured interview. There are numerous drawbacks and benefits for each of the
different types of interview which will be presented in the following table.
Structured interview Semi structured
interview
Unstructured
interview
Benefits Most of the
participants is eligible
for this interview.
The semi structured
interview can be
categorized into three
categories such as the
hybrid interview,
moderately structure
interview as well as
the combined
interview.
This interview can be
categorised into three
types such as the
casual interview,
informal interview and
the free flowing
interview.
Limitations Questionnaires are
very harder to
development for this
interview.
This interview is very
less objective as
compared with the
other two categories
of interview.
Experience and quality
of the participants are
required for the
unstructured
interview.
Table 1: Advantages and disadvantages of different types of interview
(Source: Created by the author)
4.2. Questionnaires
The use of the questionnaire can be considered as the quantitative research methodology.
Considered as the primary data collection procedure, questionnaires are very much helpful to ask
specific questions about any selected topic. The data analysis of the data can be done in an
organized manner with the help of the questionnaires. Questionnaires are a series of questions
which are set in a paper in a chronological order aligning with the topic of the assignment. Statistical
analysis of the questionnaire are very much important to analyse the data collected from the
questionnaires. There are few limitations associated with questionnaires also such as the generalized
answers from the participants. The fact, preference and the behaviour of the participants can be
understood in the first place with the help of the data collection process through questionnaires. The
order of options which are generally present in this data collection procedure are discussed in the
following table.
Categories Explanation
Bounded continous There are two types of options in this questionnaires.
Ordinal polytomous There are two unordered options in this type of in this questionnaire.
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