Can we create AI ethics before we finish creating AI?

Sometimes in today's tech-driven world, in the race to be first with the next big breakthrough, it can seem like we've ended up retrofitting the rules and regulations for how these innovations (platforms, media, devices) should operate only once we are too far dependent on them, and all the positive roles they play – once they are an integral part of our society, or have changed it altogether. What would happen if we instead could create the principles and guidelines for an entire innovation or industry before it becomes standard, before its even fully invented? Actually, in healthcare it's required. Doctors have long taken the Hippocratic Oath. Those who work in the field do so in service of the patient.