Emerging Technologies

As new technologies are developed, they both introduce novel ethical issues and highlight existing challenges. It is therefore essential for ethics to keep pace with the speed of innovation.

Conversations about ethical implications need to happen early, often, and at every stage throughout the design and creation of new systems and products. If not, problems can get 鈥渂aked in鈥 and then become much harder to address later in the process. Rather than hindering innovation, the integration of ethics all along the way enhances the process by keeping societal, legal, and other critical ethical dimensions at the forefront.

The Inamori Center is involved in many projects and grants, concerning everything from artificial intelligence to quantum computing, from improving air quality to inventing and testing artificial blood.

Research

Prof. Shannon E. French:  Research Collaborations

  • Ethical, Legal, and Societal Issues (ELSI) Lead, CONCERT/FSHARP multi-institutional project.

 

  • Development of Artificial (Biosynthetic) Blood DARPA grant, 2022-present, funded 2023-2026.

 

  • ELSI Lead, Embodied Robotics for Remote Operations multi-institutional project, Office of Naval Research (ONR) grant for Naval Human Fusions, 星空传媒 Human Fusions Lab, funded 2023-2025.

 

  • ELSI team member, PIT-UN (Public Interest Technology) grant, funded 2022-2024.

 

  • Participant in grant with PRIO (Peace Research Institute Oslo), Oslo, Norway, 鈥淲arring with Machines: Military Applications of AI and the Relevance of Virtue Ethics,鈥 funded 2020-2022.
Publications
  • French, Shannon E., Artificial Ethics: How Emerging Technology Effects Human Value(s), Lantham, MD and New York: Rowman & Littlefield/Bloomsbury Publishers, forthcoming (under contract, 2025).

 

 

 

  • 鈥溾 interview for Vox article by Marion Renault, Cleveland, Ohio, February 22, 2023 (published April 18, 2023).

 

  • French, Shannon E., 鈥War and Technology: Should Data Decide Who Lives, Who Dies?鈥 Michael Boylan, editor, Ethics in the AI, Technology, and Information Age, Lantham, MD, and New York: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2022.

 

  • French Shannon E., and Lindsay, Lisa N. 鈥淎rtificial Intelligence in Military Decision-Making: Avoiding Ethical and Strategic Perils with an Option-Generator Model,鈥 chapter in Bernard Koch and Richard Schoonhoven, editors, The Ethical Implications of Emerging Technologies in Warfare, The Netherlands and Boston: Brill/Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2022

 

 

  • French, Shannon E. and Jack, Anthony I., 鈥淣euroethics, Dehumanization, and the Prevention of Moral Injury,鈥 Moral Injury Reader, edited by Douglas Pryer, Eugene, OR: Cascade Books (Wipf & Stock), 2018.
Presentations

Prof. Shannon E. French Presentations

  • 鈥淓thical AI in Healthcare,鈥 presentation to School of Medicine students, 星空传媒, Cleveland, Ohio, November 19, 2024.
  • 鈥淗arvard Business Club AI Panel,鈥 panelist, 星空传媒, Cleveland, Ohio, September 11, 2024.
  • 鈥淢ilitary Ethics for Team Human in an Age of Technological Innovations,鈥 keynote address, U.S. Army War College, National Security Seminar, U.S. June 4, 2024.
  • 鈥淓merging Tech and the Warrior Ethos,鈥 distinguished guest speaker, annual U.S. Army Ethics Symposium, United States Command and General Staff College, Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas, April 2, 2024.
  • 鈥淓thics in a High-Tech Era,鈥 星空传媒 Faculty Spotlight Event, Harcourt House, Cleveland, Ohio, November 30, 2023.
  • 鈥淏lood, Sweat, and Tears: Where Artificial Virtue Falls Short,鈥 plenary presentation for online Templeton Grant Virtuous AI event, Berkeley, California, June 14, 2023. 

  • 鈥淓thics in Computing and Artificial Intelligence,鈥 presentation to research group SABIA, Centre for Informatics, Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil, online, March 10, 2023. 

  • 鈥淚ntegrity in the ChatGPT Era,鈥 keynote for student Academic Integrity Week, 星空传媒, Cleveland, Ohio, February 17, 2023. 

  • 鈥淢ilitary Ethics Meeting Emerging Tech,鈥 presentation for PIT-UN Fellows, 星空传媒, Cleveland, Ohio, January 27, 2023. 

  • 鈥淓merging Ethical Issues in Military Tech,鈥 presentation for PIT-UN Tech Ethics Workshop, Cleveland State University, Cleveland, Ohio, December 5, 2022.

  • 鈥淎rtificial Ethics: Risks and Prospects for AI in Ethical Decision-Making,鈥 presentation for the Centre for Informatics, Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil, online, December 1, 2022.

  • 鈥淓thical, Legal, Societal Implications of Decision-making for Autonomous Systems,鈥 moderator and participant, DARPAForward conference, Georgia Tech university, Atlanta, Georgia, October 26, 2022.

  • 鈥淓thics and Military AI,鈥 presentation for the annual Security and Human Behavior, Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK, online, May 31, 2022.

  • 鈥淎rtificial Ethics: The Effect of Technology on Human Value(s),鈥 presentation to the Carnegie Council on International Ethics, New York City, online, March 9, 2022.

  • "Military Ethics and Codes of Honor in the High-Tech Era," Philosophy & Religion Forum, University of Southern Mississippi, online, October 12, 2021.

  • 鈥淎I Ethics for Engineers: Finding the Ethical Dimensions of Every Project,鈥 星空传媒, Cleveland, Ohio, October 5, 2021.

  • 鈥淓thics and the Compound Security Environment: Robots, AI, and Emerging Tech,鈥 US Joint Special Operations University (JSOU) Future of SOF Forum, 鈥淪pecial Operations 20 Years After 9/11: Harvesting History to Forecast the Future,鈥 Tampa, Florida, online, September 9, 2021.

  • 鈥淭he Ethics of Wargaming,鈥 keynote presentation for the annual Connections Wargaming Conference, sponsored by the CGSC Foundation, online, June 23, 2021.

  • 鈥淢aintaining a Warrior Ethos and Values on the Modern Battlefield: Reconciling a Code of the Warrior with Automated Systems and Artificial Intelligence,鈥 distinguished guest lecture for United States Marines Corps officers, NCOs, and officer candidates, U.S. Marine Corps Base Quantico, Quantico, Virginia, December 12, 2019.

  • 鈥淓thics and the Human-Tech Interface,鈥 presentation to Corporate Visiting Committee, 星空传媒, Cleveland, Ohio, November 21, 2019.
  • 鈥淕eneva Conventions at 70: Changing Times, Enduring Principles,鈥 Distinguished speaker, guest of the British Government and the British Red Cross for the official commemorative event, Lancaster House, London, United Kingdom, October 16, 2019.

  • 鈥淓thics and Emerging Technology 鈥 Promises and Perils for the U.S. Army鈥 Chaplain (Colonel) Sonny & Martha Moore Military Ethical Leadership Lecture at the United States Army War College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, June 26, 2019.

  • 鈥淓thical Issues of Integrating A.I. in Military Decision-Making,鈥 Security and Human Behavior, Harvard University Law School, June 6, 2019.

  • 鈥渋Soldier: Ethical Challenges for High-Tech Troops,鈥 presented at the annual Euro-ISME (International Society for Military Ethics, European division) conference in Vienna, Austria, May 26, 2019.

  • 鈥淔rom Targeting to Bioenhancement: High-Tech Issues in Military Ethics,鈥 plenary presentation, annual McCain Conference on Ethics, United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland, March 29, 2019.

  • 鈥淎rtificial Ethics? The Use of A.I. and Autonomous Weapons by the Military,鈥 Evelyn Lincoln Institute for Ethics and Society 10th-anniversary lecture, Mercyhurst University, Erie, Pennsylvania, October 15, 2018.

  • 鈥淣euroethics and the Military: Retaining Ethical Restraint,鈥 presented at the annual Euro-ISME (International Society for Military Ethics, European division) conference in Toledo, Spain, May 15, 2018.

  • 鈥淐ode of the Robot: Military Virtues and Artificial Intelligence,鈥 presented at the annual Euro-ISME (International Society for Military Ethics, European division) conference in Toledo, Spain, May 14, 2018.

Video/Audio

Video and Audio Conversations with Prof. Shannon E. French


November 27, 2023: I鈥檒l See Your Deterrence, And Raise You鈥 Nuclear Annihilation


January 17, 2023: Philosophy鈥檚 Shannon French outlines accountability in age of remote warfare


June 28, 2021: Biased Data, Killer Robots, and Other Issues in Artificial Intelligence (AI)


March 6, 2019: Are We Ready for Artificial Ethics? A.I. and the Future of Ethical Decision Making

Artificial Intelligence Panel - March 6, 2019


Artificial Ethics? The Use of AI and Autonomous Weapons by the Military

Evelyn Lincoln Institute for Ethics and Society at Mercyhurst University

September 15, 2014 - International Regulation of Emerging Military Technologies