Trust aWare: Trilateral Research experts are working on evaluation.
In March, Trilateral Research hosted an online workshop to discuss and collaborate on the ethical development of Trust aWare tools. The objective of the workshop, led by Aisling Dawson, was to validate the previously identified ethical issues raised by the Trust aWare tools, their likelihood of issues arising, and how to maximize positive outcomes. Project partners working within the Trust aWare consortium, including representatives of the pilot partners who are testing the tools, the technical partners who creating and developing the tools, and ethicists, attended the event along with external experts on ethics, law, data protection, and software for privacy, information security and emerging technology.
Project manager Annaleda Mazzucato, who coordinates the European Trust aWare Project in Italy, and consultant Marco Montironi participated on behalf of the Fondazione Mondo Digitale.
At the beginning of the workshop, Trilateral researchers gave a short presentation on the role and importance of ethics within the project's co-design process, before splitting into groups to examine the potential ethical issues raised by Trust aWare tools. Through interactive discussions, The groups employed interactive discussions to analyse the tools developed by the consortium from an ethical point of view. They explored how the tools, in their current stage of development, interact with ethical values such as privacy, security, justice, independence and inclusiveness, before prioritizing the potential benefits and risks of Trust aWare technology. In the view of the ethical issues identified and discussed, the participants proposed solutions to maximize the positive ethical impact of the European project and its tools, as well as strategies to mitigate any potential risk.
The workshop findings are an integral part of the ethics impact assessment that Trilateral Research is conducting. Ethical impact assessment is a systematic approach to ensure that values are taken into account when developing technology. In particular, feedback from participants will be used to guide further development of the technology. The final results of the workshop will be published on the Trust aWare website.
