Institutional Transformation: Anticipating Undesirable Consequences of Computer Science Research

机构转型：预测计算机科学研究的不良后果

• 批准号: 2315937
• 负责人: Katharina Reinecke
• 金额: $ 70万
• 依托单位: University of Washington
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-09-01 至 2028-08-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2315937&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Institutional; Transformation; Anticipating; Undesirable; Consequences

Computer Science research has greatly contributed to technological progress, but it has also led to developments that have had unintended and sometimes harmful effects on society. For the researchers designing computing innovations, anticipating undesirable consequences of those innovations can be difficult due to a lack of knowledge and support for how to investigate such consequences. Thus, the aim of this research project is to enable computer science researchers to identify and assess the potential undesirable consequences of their innovations. The project will develop and evaluate a new approach to anticipating undesirable consequences of digital technology. The approach will help computing science researchers better understand the processes and resources for examining the ethical dimensions of their work. The project has the potential to transform how computing programs and other academic departments integrate ethics into their curriculum. The research team aims to develop and test the effectiveness of interventions that incentivize anticipating undesirable consequences of computer science research projects as early as possible, when pivoting a project’s approach is still feasible. Specifically, the team will design a web-based system that enables computer science researchers to: (a) access and contribute case studies of negative societal impacts of computing research projects and lessons learned, (b) brainstorm about undesirable consequences of computing projects and preregister the outcome of the brainstorming activity including potential mitigation strategies, (c) involve other researchers in the brainstorming and review of the ethics preregistration, and (d) have access to an ethics advisory board of individuals with a broad range of scholarly backgrounds. A key component of the team’s approach is that ethics preregistrations will be reviewed by other research groups, which fosters knowledge sharing and collaboration among the groups.This project is funded by the Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering and managed by the ER2 Program of the Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

计算机科学研究极大地促进了技术进步，但它也导致了对社会产生意想不到的、有时是有害的影响的发展。对于设计计算创新的研究人员来说，由于缺乏对如何调查此类后果的知识和支持，预测这些创新的不良后果可能很困难。因此，这项研究项目的目的是使计算机科学研究人员能够识别和评估他们的创新所带来的潜在不良后果。该项目将开发和评估一种预测数字技术不良后果的新方法。这种方法将帮助计算科学研究人员更好地理解检查其工作的伦理层面的过程和资源。该项目有可能改变计算程序和其他学术部门将伦理学纳入其课程的方式。研究团队的目标是开发和测试干预措施的有效性，这些干预措施鼓励在以项目方法为中心仍然可行的情况下，尽早预测计算机科学研究项目的不良后果。具体地说，该小组将设计一个网上系统，使计算机科学研究人员能够：(A)查阅计算机研究项目和经验教训的负面社会影响案例研究并作出贡献；(B)集思广益地讨论计算机项目的不良后果，并预先登记集思广益活动的结果，包括潜在的缓解战略；(C)让其他研究人员参与集思广益和审查道德操守预登记工作；(D)能够接触具有广泛学术背景的个人的道德操守咨询委员会。该团队方法的一个关键组成部分是伦理预注册将由其他研究小组审查，这促进了小组之间的知识共享和合作。该项目由计算机和信息科学与工程局资助，由社会、行为和经济科学局的ER2计划管理。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。