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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 “baked in” 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, CWRU 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, “Warring with Machines: Military Applications of AI and the Relevance of Virtue Ethics,” 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).

 

 

 

 

  • French, Shannon E., “War and Technology: Should Data Decide Who Lives, Who Dies?” 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. “Artificial Intelligence in Military Decision-Making: Avoiding Ethical and Strategic Perils with an Option-Generator Model,” 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., “Neuroethics, Dehumanization, and the Prevention of Moral Injury,” Moral Injury Reader, edited by Douglas Pryer, Eugene, OR: Cascade Books (Wipf & Stock), 2018.
Presentations

Prof. Shannon E. French Presentations

  • “Ethical AI in Healthcare,” presentation to School of Medicine students, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, November 19, 2024.
  • “Harvard Business Club AI Panel,” panelist, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, September 11, 2024.
  • “Military Ethics for Team Human in an Age of Technological Innovations,” keynote address, U.S. Army War College, National Security Seminar, U.S. June 4, 2024.
  • “Emerging Tech and the Warrior Ethos,” distinguished guest speaker, annual U.S. Army Ethics Symposium, United States Command and General Staff College, Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas, April 2, 2024.
  • “Ethics in a High-Tech Era,” CWRU Faculty Spotlight Event, Harcourt House, Cleveland, Ohio, November 30, 2023.

  • “Blood, Sweat, and Tears: Where Artificial Virtue Falls Short,” plenary presentation for online Templeton Grant Virtuous AI event, Berkeley, California, June 14, 2023. 

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

  • “Integrity in the ChatGPT Era,” keynote for student Academic Integrity Week, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, February 17, 2023. 

  • “Military Ethics Meeting Emerging Tech,” presentation for PIT-UN Fellows, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, January 27, 2023. 

  • “Emerging Ethical Issues in Military Tech,” presentation for PIT-UN Tech Ethics Workshop, Cleveland State University, Cleveland, Ohio, December 5, 2022.

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

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

  • “Ethics and Military AI,” presentation for the annual Security and Human Behavior, Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK, online, May 31, 2022.

  • “Artificial Ethics: The Effect of Technology on Human Value(s),” 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.

  • “AI Ethics for Engineers: Finding the Ethical Dimensions of Every Project,” Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, October 5, 2021.

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

  • “The Ethics of Wargaming,” keynote presentation for the annual Connections Wargaming Conference, sponsored by the CGSC Foundation, online, June 23, 2021.

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

  • “Ethics and the Human-Tech Interface,” presentation to Corporate Visiting Committee, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, November 21, 2019.

  • “Geneva Conventions at 70: Changing Times, Enduring Principles,” 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • “Code of the Robot: Military Virtues and Artificial Intelligence,” 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’ll See Your Deterrence, And Raise You… Nuclear Annihilation

January 17, 2023: Philosophy’s 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