Exploring the design approach to embedding ethics in technology

Embedding ethics in technology involves considering not only the practicality of technological design but also integrating ethical attributes into the design process to ensure the ethical acceptability of technological applications. The proposal of this approach is based on a profound theoretical background, including Bruno Latour's ‘society of artifacts’ theory, Don Ihde's ‘technological mediation’ theory, Peter-Paul Verbeek's ‘materializing morality’ theory, and the ancient Chinese concept of ‘governing techniques with Dao’. It is also grounded in urgent practical needs: the design turn in the ethics of technology, the ethical turn in design practice and the value alignment of artificial intelligence all play a promotional role in the proposal of this approach. The essence of this approach is converting ethical values into design specifications, which achieves a translation from values to facts, implicitly entailing the inverse of the ‘Hume problem’. There are different approaches to embedding ethics in technology, including the ‘brain-based’ Western approach and the ‘heart-based’ Chinese approach. It is necessary to compare these two approaches and promote ‘heart–brain collaboration’ by leveraging the strengths of each perspective, thereby better realizing the goal of embedding ethics in technology.