Ethics in autonomous and intelligent systems

  • Announcement
2018-07-30

Austrian Standards and OVE launch an open community jointly with eight other founding organizations

Open Community for Ethics in
Autonomous and Intelligent
Systems OCEANIS

Ethical issues around autonomous and intelligent systems are surfacing across a wide variety of industries and need to be addressed in an open and transparent manner. Austrian Standards International and OVE today jointly launched and became a founding member of the Open Community for Ethics in Autonomous and Intelligent Systems (OCEANIS). This global forum brings together organizations interested in the development and use of standards to address ethical matters in autonomous and intelligent systems.

Standards can help reassure end users and can play an important role in alleviating concerns regarding ethics. There is a real need and opportunity for broad collaboration between all relevant national and international organizations to develop locally and globally applicable solutions that support technical, business and policy decisions.

Elisabeth Stampfl-Blaha, Austrian Standards Managing Director: "It has been proven over decades: Standards can provide solutions wherever close cooperation of stakeholders is needed - even if they have very different points of view. When we think about digitization and autonomous and intelligent systems and all the consequences they may have it is clear we cannot go on thinking 'only' in dimensions of technology or economy. Much more it will be necessary to think about probable consequences and consider different ethical aspects. Being aware of its responsibility Austrian Standards therefore welcomes OCEANIS as an open community and neutral platform for exchange and collaboration for all parties interested or concerned and is glad to support this initiative. We are sure this will contribute to a future development that is in favour of both: economy and society. And it will also enhance the understanding of standardization and its supporting role in the field of innovation."

Andreas Kugi, OVE Vice-President and Member of the Austrian Council for Robotics & Artificial Intelligence: "The fast progress of digitalization provokes a number of critical questions regarding ethical concerns, e. g., in the area of fully automated systems like autonomous driving. The discussions about the ethical boundaries and how to put them into standards have started to become a growing global issue. A coordinated approach is crucial for getting a common understanding of the ethical challenges. The Austrian Council for Robotics and Artificial Intelligence highly welcomes and supports the OCEANIS initiative in co-operation with the Austrian Electrotechnical Association OVE."

OCEANIS participants consent to:

  • Share information and coordinate on respective initiatives and programs
  • Enhance understanding of the role of standards in facilitating innovation, and address problems that extend beyond technical solutions to addressing ethics and values
  • Jointly organize events at local/regional/global level
  • Identify opportunities for concerted activities that strengthen the development and use of standards in addressing technical, societal and ethical implications arising from technology advancement.

The OCEANIS community is open to all interested organizations. Founding Members include:

  • Austrian Standards International (A.S.I.)
  • Austrian Electrotechnical Association (OVE)
  • British Standards Institution (BSI)
  • China Electronic Standardization Institute (CESI)
  • Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Standards Association (IEEE-SA)
  • International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC)
  • National Standards Authority of Ireland (NSAI)
  • Servicio Ecuatoriano de Normalización (INEN)
  • Turkish Standards Institute (TSE)
  • Verband und Deutsche Kommission Elektrotechnik Elektronik Informationstechnik (VDE/DKE)

The OCEANIS community is open and not-for-profit.
More information on OCEANIS on www.ethicsstandards.org.
Organizations interested in participating in OCEANIS, are invited to send an email to oceanis(at)ieee.org.

Medienkontakt
Mirjana Verena Mully, Head of Communications

Mirjana Verena Mully

Head of Communications