Value-Sensitive Design

Design is a value-driven activity, although the ethical, legal and social values often remain implicit and unarticulated. We specialise in teasing out these values with a unique methodology to build robot/AI, cyber and human enhancement systems that are more effective, efficient and better accepted by users, clients and the public.

Competitive advantage

  • Australia’s first and only team dedicated to inserting specific organisational values into emerging military and security products or services with the aim of enhancing outcomes and user experience
  • Expertise influencing the regulation of emerging technologies at the national and international level, including United Nations regulatory efforts
  • Demonstrated experience positively managing the media’s coverage of specific technologies
  • A unique value-sensitive design method proven to yield better design outcomes than non-value sensitive processes

Impact

  • Prevent technology from being misused, underutilised or disused
  • Provision of enhanced understanding of user requirements in the capability development lifecycle
  • Better alignment of technology with societal values, limiting negative PR

Successful applications

  • Currently conducting a $1 million study of the ethical and legal implications of the US DoD’s development of drones
  • Delivering a multi-million-dollar long-term program for an Australian Defence partner embedding ethics and law into the design of future autonomous weapons

Capabilities and facilities

  • An interdisciplinary and international team of ethicists, lawyers, sociologists, cognitive scientists and engineers, many with active security clearances
  • Access to cutting-edge tools – social robotics, small aerial imagery drones

Our partners

  • The Australian and US Departments of Defence
Tags
lensAutonomous Systems