An Analysis of Information Technology Ethics: Automation and Jobs

This essay examines the ethical implications of automation in the information technology sector, focusing on its impact on employment. The essay explores how automation, including robotics and artificial intelligence, is leading to job displacement across various industries, such as manufacturing, transportation, and banking. It discusses the ethical challenges arising from this trend, including the loss of jobs and the need for workforce adaptation. The essay analyzes the ethical frameworks of utilitarianism, deontology, virtue ethics, and contract ethics in the context of automation, arguing that the current implementation of automation does not always align with these ethical principles. It concludes by suggesting the need for initiatives such as training programs and workshops to help individuals adapt to the changing job market and mitigate the negative impacts of automation. The document highlights the importance of considering ethical factors to ensure that technological advancements benefit society as a whole.

Running head: INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ETHICS
Information Technology Ethics
Name of Student-
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Author’s Note-

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“Will Automation Kill or Create Jobs?”
Automatic techniques are increasing day by day in the modern world technological era.
Automation system includes robots, artificial intelligence with the technologies of modern world.
The involvement of robots includes making of cars, and the artificial intelligence involves the
concept of driverless cars. The concept of automation of robot has changed the working of
mines, working in banks, and working of factories (Will Automation Kill or Create Jobs?, 2018).
The automation system is capable of doing all the works that are done by the labors or by
workers. Systems and equipment that are used for working are run automatically by technologies
of artificial intelligence. From the study it can be studied that about 5 percent of all the
occupation that needs human involvement are replaced by systems of automation. This
involvement of advance technologies creates a problem in the environment of common people
leaving them jobless in the society.
The area of workers who are mostly affected by advanced technologies and the robotics
is the labors or the workers working in factories, banks. The vehicle drivers are also affected by
the automation system (Strawn, 2017). The artificial intelligence is introducing driverless trucks
that does not need drivers for riding. These innovations in technological sectors usually takes the
job of the truck drivers and the taxi drivers. The industry of mining has introduced automatic
loaders that works instead of labors replacing the manual labors. The vehicles that are mostly
driven by artificial intelligence that do not need manual drivers. All such jobs are replaced the
modern technologies. In the given case study almost 2.2 million of jobs of drivers are being
replaced by automatic systems. The skills involved in factories are also replaced by the
automatic methods of maintaining the technologies (Farah, 2015). The workers that are involved
in factories, banks are changed by advanced skills technologies eliminating the employees from

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their jobs and leaving them jobless. The advanced software system helps to do all the jobs in
very less time and technologies are very efficient in doing the jobs as per they are programmed.
The difficulties that are faced by the automation system is that the common people are
losing their jobs. The automation system does all the work that were done by humans more
efficiently and does the way in anew improved way. But, there are many problems with the
automation system that are related to the ethics (Tavis, 2017). Ethics involves four techniques,
which are to be followed by all the system that works in the environment. But, the automation
process does not maintains all techniques of ethics. Ethics techniques deals with Utilitarianism
ethics, Deontology ethics, virtual ethics, as well as contract ethics. All the ethics are discussed
below with respect to the case study of automation.
Utilitarianism is a technique of ethics that is basically followed by all the systems that are
used in a society. The Utilitarianism defines of getting the maximum from a system. The system
is to be utilized to produce its maximum utility. Best activity result is to be obtained from the
system that follows Utilitarianism (Chakrabarty & Bass, 2015). The Utilitarianism theory defines
right thing from the wrong thing. The Utilitarianism theory is strictly not followed in this
automation case study that deals with automation of technologies. The automation system is not
at all ethical for the common people, which stops the theory of Utilitarianism to be followed.
With the systems, the maximum utility of the system is not followed as people have to leave their
job because of the automation system. People are unemployed with the automation system in
use, which is not an ethical cause for the society.
The next theory of ethics is the Deontology Ethics. The definition of Deontology Ethics
states that there should be a relationship in between the work that is done by the system with that
of the morality included in the action of human activities. The word “deon” means duty and

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“tology” means science. Deontology theory of ethics includes doing all actions morally that are
involved in a system (Murren & Block, 2017). The automation case study does not follow the
theory of deontology either. The work and the consequences that comes from the deontology
ethics are not at all moral as the common people suffers from the being jobless. There is an
advancement in the technologies and without the proper knowledge and learning, the common
people are forced to leave their job. The advance technologies has replaced the humans and does
the work more efficiently compared to the manual work.
The virtue theory related to ethics is the third theory of ethics. In virtue theory of ethics,
the character of an individual plays the main role (Pandey, 2018). The character of an individual
is given more importance than any other rules or problems that are related virtue of the ethics.
The theory of virtue ethics consists of habit of a person or the quality that a person have to
succeed in life. This case study does not deals with a particular quality or with some particular
habit of a person. This case study deals with a group of person who are affected by the invention
of automatic technologies. The virtue of ethics is not involved in this case study. The persons
who are related with the case study lose their jobs because of the automation system that is
making new inventions with the system.
The last theory that is related to ethics is the Contract theory of ethics. The contract
theory in ethics involves the human agreement with the political rules as well as the moral rules
to stay in a society. To adjust themselves in a society, humans have to follow different rules that
are decided by government bodies (Bowen & Prescott, 2015). All such rules are to be accepted
by common people. Contract theory deals is basically an explicit theory that includes the
involvement of laws in it. The contract theory is not followed in this automation case study

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because the people is not accepting the rules of government as it is taking the jobs of the
individuals.
It can be concluded that the automation technology is decreasing the employment ratio of
the society by deploying the automation technology of robot for building cars and artificial
intelligence that brings driverless cars. To be accepted by all the citizen properly, the system is
have to follow all the four theories of ethics including Utilitarianism, Deontology, Virtue Ethics
and Contract ethics. The automation technologies is taking away the jobs of common people. To
mitigate this situation, some possible initiative are to be taken so that the common people do not
lose their jobs. Proper training and workshops are to be organized so that the common people get
to know about the working process of the modern technologies that would help them to operate
those modern equipment. The automation technologies of artificial intelligence are made of
modern ideas and innovations and they handling them is not an easy task. So. With proper
training, the job of common people can be saved if they know to use the modern technologies of
the automation world.

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Will Automation Kill or Create Jobs? - IEEE - The Institute. (2018). Theinstitute.ieee.org.
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