Professional IT Culture Ethical Analysis

Question: Discuss about theProfessional IT Culturefor Ethical Analysis. Answer: Introduction An electric car company that has a successful name in the market is now ready to launch the advance cars with the components of Artificial Intelligence (AI) installed in them. The cars will require a very little human intervention and will be automatic in terms of operations. John is the AI consultant of the company and is also responsible and accountable for the functioning of all the AI components present in the car. It has been devised that certain modeling of accident scenarios will be required to be done which might delay the actual launch of the cars in the market. An ethical analysis of the entire situation has been covered in the document. Ethical Dilemma for AI Consultant John is the AI consultant for the company and has devised that the cars will require going through modeling of the accident scenarios to understand the behavior and functioning is such risk situations. However, such activities will delay the launch of the cars in the market which will allow the competitors of the company to have an advantage as they will release their cars before the electric car company which may cause huge damage for the company. The management along with the IT department of the organization has refused to delay the launch and believes that the AI system installed in the cars is competent enough to deal with any accidental situations. They have agreed to carry out the modeling of the accident scenarios and related tests after the launch is done. The ethical dilemma that is present with the AI consultant is in terms of decision making to whether agree to the decision of the management or to stick to his own analysis of the requirement of the tests to be carried out before the launch. John is aware that if the AI system installed in the cars fails to function properly in the scenario of an accident then it may have a very adverse impact on the driver as well as the co-passengers which may risk their lives. Also, it is the responsibility of John to make sure that there are no errors with the AI systems and he will be accountable for the errors in the later stages. Disagreeing with the management and IT leadership will be damaging to his career as the launch will be delayed if he will not give a go-ahead from his end. The ethical dilemma therefore is to whether go ahead with the actual launch date or to release the cars only after all the validations and checks are performed in the AI system that is installed. Ethical Theory of Consequentialism As per the ethical theory of Consequentialism, an activity can be evaluated and termed as an ethically correct activity only when the consequences that come out from it are beneficial for every entity and do not result in any sort of damage to anyone. In case of the ethical dilemma associated with electric car company and its AI consultant will have the following consequences on the AI consultant and the car customers. The customers will be put at the risk of losing their lives as the AI system that is installed in the cars has not been verified and validated in terms of certain accident scenarios (Tanner, 2007). The AI consultant is accountable and responsible for the AI system functioning and if it turns out to be faulty then the job of the AI consultant will be at risk and there will be legal obligations that will also be levied. AI consultant will also be answerable to other stakeholders and partners of the electric car company if an incident regarding the failure of the AI system is reported. The customers will be able to purchase a car with the advanced and automatic systems installed in the agreed timeframe if the launch is made as per the estimated date (Copp, 2009). The consequences that have been listed above are negative in nature for both the customers as well as the AI consultant. Also, the degree of the negative impact that these consequences will have on both the parties is extremely high. The decision to go ahead with the launch of cars without performing required validation is therefore considered as ethically incorrect as per the ethical theory of Consequentialism. Consistent Application of Principles As per the consistency principle, it is stated that a product shall reflect utmost level of consistency in all of its applications and there shall be no faults or deviations involved in any of the associated components in terms of consistency (Vazquez, 2016). In case of the cars of electric car company, there can be inconsistency that may be observed in the AI system and its functioning that is installed in the car. There may be certain scenarios wherein the AI system may function well and there may be certain scenarios wherein the system may fail leading to huge damage. Also, there may be situations in which the AI system of one of the cars may function correctly whereas the AI system of the other car may be faulty (Sieber, 2008). AI consultant of the company is therefore responsible to ensure that consistency is maintained and reflected in all the cars that are released along with all the components of the cars that are installed. It will be the duty of the AI consultant to ensure that the behavior of the AI system that is installed is not faulty and functions without any errors (Moore, 2006). Ethical Response Care Ethics As per the Care Ethics, care is a virtue that is kept as a basis for evaluating an act as ethically correct or incorrect. In case of the ethical dilemma that is associated with electric car company, the ethical response will be to come up with a strategy that may not delay the launch date of the cars to make sure that there are no damages caused to the company (Juujarvi, 2003). Simultaneously, the required tests shall be carried out and modeled in the timeframe that is left. There may be lesser number of cars that have passed the test may be released instead of the promised number. In such a manner, there will be no risk to the lives of the customers and there will also be no damage caused to the company (Held, 2006). ACS Code of Professional Conduct There are six values that are includes in the ACS Code of Professional Conduct which are primacy of public interest, competence, honesty, enhancement of quality of life, professional development and professionalism. These codes are evaluated in terms of requirements associated with the case of the electric car company. Primacy of Public Interest The public interest is to experience good quality cars with automatic features that ensure the safety and protection of the passengers and drivers at all times which is violated as the cars may risk the lives of people. Competence Competency is also violated in this case as the interests of the stakeholders are put at risk and it would be essential to maintain transparency with all the stakeholders. Enhancement of Quality of Life Instead of enhancement of quality of life, the cars are putting the lives of people in danger. It will be necessary to carry out the checks and tests before the launch of the cars (Acs, 2014). Honesty The act of launching the cars without carrying out the validation checks will be an example of dishonesty as the associated risks are already known. Professional Development The value says that an individual shall work in such a manner that there is professional development of self and staff done in the process which is not the case with electric car company and it will be necessary to ensure that development is reflected in the duties Professionalism Integrity of the code is violated as most of the values are not reflected. It will be required to carry out the activities as per the values in the code. Defense of Ethical Grounds for AI Consultant Agreeing to the decision of the management to go ahead with the launch as per the original launch date can only be backed on the ethical grounds of the benefits to the company that will result out with this move. AI Consultant is an employee of the electric car company and the profits and higher revenues for the companies are the aim of the consultant. John can only hope that the AI systems do not behave in an incorrect manner and there are no incidents reported unless the rest of the validations and checks are performed after the launch (Keiser, 2008). Solution for Ethical Dilemma Conclusion AI consultant can solve the ethical dilemma by including additional staff to carry out the remaining validations and checks to make sure that all the cars are completely tested before the launch. There may also be checks performed on lesser number of vehicles or one car from each category to understand the behavior as all of the cars have the same design and features (Hadjistavropoulos, 2016). Such steps will make sure that there is no loss to the company as well as to the customers and it will be a win-win situation for one and all. References Acs. (2014). ACS Code of Professional Conduct Professional Standards Board Australian Computer Society. Retrieved 2 May 2017, from https://www.acs.org.au/content/dam/acs/rules-and-regulations/Code-of-Professional-Conduct_v2.1.pdf Copp, D. (2009). The Oxford Handbook of Ethical Theory. Retrieved 2 May 2017, from https://davidobrink.com/sites/default/files/publications/SomeFormsandLimitsofConsequentialism.pdf Hadjistavropoulos, T. (2016). Ethics Behavior: Unlimited Prospects. Ethics Behavior, 26(6), 449-450. https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10508422.2016.1201675 Held, V. (2006). The Ethics of Care: Personal, Political, and Global. Retrieved 2 May 2017, from https://voidnetwork.gr/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/The-Ethics-of-Care-Personal-Political-and-Global-by-Virginia-Held.pdf Juujarvi, S. (2003). The Ethic of Care and Its Development. Retrieved 2 May 2017, from https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Soile_Juujaervi/publication/28373493_The_ethic_of_care_and_its_development_A_longitudinal_study_among_practical_nursing_bachelor-degree_social_work_and_law_enforcement_students/links/00b7d5284b9e797ebb000000/The-ethic-of-care-and-its-development-A-longitudinal-study-among-practical-nursing-bachelor-degree-social-work-and-law-enforcement-students.pdf?origin=publication_detail Keiser, J. (2008). Business Ethics and Ethics Education in American Business Programs. Competitio, 7(2), 195-200. https://dx.doi.org/10.21845/comp/2008/2/13 Moore, G. (2006). The Institute of Business Ethics/European Business Ethics Network-UK Student Competition in Business Ethics. Business Ethics: A European Review, 15(3), 292-292. https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8608.2006.00443.x Sieber, J. (2004). Empirical Research on Research Ethics. Ethics Behavior, 14(4), 397-412. https://dx.doi.org/10.1207/s15327019eb1404_9 Tanner, C. (2007). Influence of deontological versus consequentialist orientations on act choices and framing effects: When principles are more important than consequences. Retrieved 2 May 2017, from https://groups.psych.northwestern.edu/medin/publications/TannerMedinIliev2007.pdf Vazquez, P. (2016). Family Business Ethics: At the Crossroads of Business Ethics and Family Business. Journal Of Business Ethics. https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10551-016-3171-1