Ethical Design of Computers: From Semiconductors to IoT and Artificial Intelligence

Computing systems are tightly integrated today into our professional, social, and private lives. An important consequence of this growing ubiquity of computing is that it can have significant ethical implications of which computing professionals should take account. In most real-world scenarios, it is not immediately obvious how particular technical choices during the design and use of computing systems could be viewed from an ethical perspective. This article provides a perspective on the ethical challenges within semiconductor chip design, IoT applications, and the increasing use of artificial intelligence in the design processes, tools, and hardware-software stacks of these systems.