Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, Inc.
A Technoprogressive Think-Tank
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
The Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies was formed to study and debate vital questions such as: - Which technologies, especially new ones, are likely to have the greatest impact on human beings and human societies in the 21st century? - What ethical issues do those technologies and their applications raise for humans, our civilization, and our world? - How much can we extrapolate from the past and how much accelerating change should we anticipate? - What sort of policy positions can be recommended to promote the best possible outcomes for individuals and societies?
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Work, Democracy, and Conflict
Research Programs
The Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies (IEET) and the Applied Ethics Center (AEC) at the University of Massachusetts Boston will be collaborating on two multiyear research projects, one on the impacts of artificial intelligence on work, democracy and conflict, and the other on the regulation of human enhancement.
AI and the Future of Work, Democracy, and Conflict
Some forecasters believe automation and other emerging technologies will cause a rapid loss of traditional employment in the coming decades. Other forecasters argue that there will not be a net loss of jobs, but foresee instead a rapid innovation of new jobs, and the transformation of existing jobs. Policies to address the rapidly changing labor market include reforming higher education and job re-training, shortening the work week, a federal jobs guarantee, and a universal basic income. Whether work is threatened or not, some see a post-work future as a desirable goal of public policy, while others believe work is essential to meaning and social engagement. How can higher education focus more on non-automatable skills like creativity and social-emotional intelligence? What are the impacts of employment versus guaranteed income? Many of us find the primary locus of meaning in our work. Would living in a world with less, or transformed, work be less meaningful?
Artificial intelligence is also having dramatic impacts on democratic institutions, citizen participation and social conflict. Does AI pose unique risks to the health of democracy, and how can it strengthen citizen participation? Does AI make systemic bias more visible and correctable, or does it make it opaque with a scientistic veneer? How do weaponized AI applications in social media threaten democracy and national security? How will authoritarian regimes use AI? How do the lethal autonomous robots and other AI-driven weaponry influence how we understand war and inter-group conflict? How does AI change the culture of war and our traditional understanding of military power?
The IEET’s Artificial Intelligence program will organize seminars, publications and conferences on the academic and policy work being done on these questions.
Cyborgs and Human Enhancement
The Cyborgs and Human Enhancement program will focus on the philosophical and regulatory questions around human enhancement, including cognitive, genetic and moral enhancement, radical longevity therapies, prosthetics and brain-computer interfaces. How should regulatory agencies manage clinical trials for anti-aging or cognitive enhancement therapies? How do enhancement technologies impact identity and well-being? What does an extended cognition approach to the use of electronic devices imply about rights to privacy and autonomy? How can the use of neurotechnologies be regulated to respect individual autonomy, while minimizing addiction and side effects? While public policy should aim for universal access to human enhancement, when should access to dangerous enhancements be restricted or licensed? What is an appropriate use of moral enhancement in the criminal justice system?
The IEET’s Artificial Intelligence program will organize seminars, publications and conferences on the academic and policy work being done on these questions.
Where we work
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of editorial board meetings held
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Work, Democracy, and Conflict
Type of Metric
Input - describing resources we use
Direction of Success
Increasing
Number of website pageviews
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Increasing
Number of unique website visitors
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Increasing
Number of Facebook followers
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Increasing
Number of new programs/program sites
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Work, Democracy, and Conflict
Type of Metric
Context - describing the issue we work on
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
Focusing on emerging technologies that have the potential to positively transform social conditions and the quality of human lives – especially “human enhancement technologies” – the IEET seeks to cultivate academic, professional, and popular understanding of their implications, both positive and negative, and to encourage responsible public policies for their safe and equitable use.
The liberal democratic revolution, centuries-old and still growing strong, has at its core the idea that people are happiest when they have rational control over their lives. Reason, science, and technology provide one kind of control, slowly freeing us from ignorance, toil, pain, and disease. Democracy provides the other kinds of control, through civil liberties and electoral participation.
Technology and democracy complement one another, ensuring that safe technology is generally accessible and democratically accountable. The convergence of nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology, and cognitive science in the coming decades will give us unimaginable technological mastery of nature and ourselves. That mastery requires progressive democratization.
Our purpose, therefore, is to stimulate and support the constructive study of ethical issues connected with these powerful emerging technologies.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
The IEET has partnered with the Applied Ethics Center (AEC) at the University of Massachusetts Boston to offer a full-time Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship (24 months) on the Future of Work (2021-2023). Some forecasters believe automation and other emerging technologies will cause a rapid loss of traditional employment in the coming decades. Other forecasters argue that there will not be a net loss of jobs, but foresee instead a rapid innovation of new jobs, and transformation of existing jobs. Policies to address the rapidly changing labor market include reforming higher education and job re-training, shortening the workweek, a federal jobs guarantee, and a universal basic income. Whether work is threatened or not, some see a post-work future as a desirable goal of public policy, while others believe work is essential to meaning and social engagement. How can higher education focus more on non-automatable skills like creativity and social-emotional intelligence? What are the impacts of employment versus guaranteed income? Many of us find the primary locus of meaning in our work. Would living in a world with less, or transformed, work be less meaningful? Or do we generate a newer version of Athens, this time without slave labor, a society in which work is not the main context in which we meet and value each other? The Future of Work Fellow will help the AEC and the IEET research the academic and policy work being done on these questions.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
Central to IEET’s goal in the promotion of technoprogressive research is in the publication of peer-reviewed papers in high impact journals. However, in order to promote transparency as well as stimulate the dissemination of this important knowledge, the IEET aims to publish their papers Open Access (OA).
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
Over the course of the next decade, the IEET aims at promoting and exploring technoprogressivism through academic research. In order to break new ground and to do this successfully, new postdoctoral fellowship programs have been designed to set up new doctoral graduates to promote the exploration of technoprogressivism and its intersectional domains at a high academic level. Thanks to donations received in 2020, we have successfully funded the first of our three proposed fellowships.
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, Inc.
Board of directorsas of 02/22/2022
George Dvorsky
Sentient Developments
Term: 2012 -
George Dvorsky
Sentient Developments
Mark Walker
Philosophy Dept., New Mexico State University
Giulio Prisco
Italian Transhumanist Association
Richard Eskow
Campaign for America’s Future
David Wood
London Futurists
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Not applicable -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Not applicable