The Digital Oath: Fostering Human-Centered Technology Through Collaborative Positive Ethics

This paper proposes a Digital Oath framework to engineers and digital actors designing AI systems. The framework consists of an actual oath with defined sets of pledges, as well as a supporting ground in form of a hub of collaborators. The oath with the proposed structure and content, inspired by the Hippocratic Oath, aims to be universal and encourage the digital actor to commit to principles related to the design of the digital systems and values of the human being, the peoples and the communities as well as the environment. It is structured in three sets of pledges, the first has the actor commit to participate and be aware of human rights and of the system being built. The second set contains guardrail pledges that inspire to do no harm. The third set promotes positive ethics, or the design of systems that do good. Furthermore, to address the inevitable complexity of translating principles into practice, the digital oath proposes a hub structure, a network of interdisciplinary professionals, sharing knowledge and situational experiences seeking to document good practices, and define methodologies for ethical AI designs. Within this framework, the digital oath links together the positive ethical commitment of the singular person and the collaborative deliberation to make sure AI design is centered on the human, the peoples and the communities. Through motivation, intention and collaboration, the digital oath framework is a step-by-step all-responsible end-user-oriented approach to building positive human-centered positive AI systems.