In the 4th industrial revolution under which autonomous, intelligent systems are designed, human brain capacities are delegated to machines. This brings in great opportunity to reduce the need for human intervention in daily lives, together with considerable ethical challenges. The role of the designers of such systems, i.e., engineers, is most important in balancing the opportunities and the challenges.

Being a global organization with more than 450,000 members, the IEEE took responsibility and has set up the Global Initiative on Ethics of Autonomous and Intelligent Systems, whose mission is: “To ensure every stakeholder involved in the design and development of autonomous and intelligent systems is educated, trained, and empowered to prioritize ethical considerations so that these technologies are advanced for the benefit of humanity.”

In this talk we will present the various activities of the global initiative to promote ethics in AI/S and, in particular, we will introduce the Ethically Aligned Design, First Edition which is a comprehensive report that combines a conceptual framework addressing universal human values, data agency, and technical dependability with a set of principles to guide A/IS creators and users through a comprehensive set of recommendations.