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This article investigates the application of the Trolley Problem and systems thinking to enhance the safety of emerging technologies. First, a detailed look at both the original Trolley Problem as well as a recent extension of it, the Moral Machine, are detailed. Then systems thinking is discussed as a way to ensure ethical reflection in both the development and deployment of technologies. Topics include moral reasoning and agency as well as self-driving cars as an example emerging technology.

The author looks at ethical questions related to technological advances, focusing on the process by which he believes ethical considerations can most effectively be addressed in technology projects. He suggests that ethics is best viewed as a process which involves inquiry and reflection and which should involve the participation of multiple stakeholders. He cites four ethical theories that can contribute to reflection on ethical issues pertaining to technology: consequentialism, relational ethics, virtue ethics, and deontology.

Algorithms and AI tools are becoming increasingly influential artefacts in commercial and governance contexts. Algorithms and AI tools are not value neutral; to some extent they must be rendered knowable and known as objects, and in their implementation and deployment, to see clearly and understand their implications for moral values, and what actions can be undertaken to optimise them in their design and use towards ethical goals, or whether they are even suitable for particular goals. Transparency is a term with variable uses and interpretations, a problem which can challenge its use in design and policy. Here, we attempt to further clarify transparency. We argue that transparency is the state of affairs that obtains when relevant and understandable information about some X is available and accessible to some target audience (A), so that this information is sufficient for A for the purpose (P). Moreover, we connect this conceptualisation with transparency’s moral value, where P is to provide an account about X’s supportive or conflicting relationship with relevant values and goals. Such teleological ends in our context here can be the ability to account for the degree to which an algorithm, process or organisation respects certain values and is conducive to (social) goals.