Progress Report
Development of “Jizai Hon-yaku-ki (At-will Translator)” connecting various minds based on brain and body functions6. Ethical, legal, and social issues (ELSI) involved in Jizai Hon-yaku-ki
Progress until FY2022
1. Outline of the project
In R&D Theme 6, we analyze the ethical, legal, and social issues (ELSI) involved in this R&D project to make Jizai Hon-yaku-ki socially acceptable.
Since Jizai Hon-yaku-ki builds on emerging biology and neuroscience, it may cause various ethical concerns re-garding privacy and unfamiliar forms of communication. Also, our highest priority is to protect the rights of partici-pants in our R&D. Jizai Hon-yaku-ki should reduce — ra-ther than worsen — discrimination against people with developmental conditions.
The primary task of our R&D Theme 6 is to investigate these potential issues from theoretical and practical standpoints. This sub-project also aims to provide fu-ture-oriented insights into neurodiversity and (supported) communication.
2. Outcome so far
- Compiled a list of potential issues relevant to our R&D of Jizai Hon-yaku-ki;
- Started the data management working-group in our R&D project;
- Analyzed ethical issues concerning mental manipulation.
Outcome 1:
We compiled a list of ethical, legal, and social issues relevant to this R&D project. The list is twofold to reflect the distinction between (1) issues that can be salient shortly and (2) issues of longer-term relevance.
Outcome 2:
We established a working group to address data-related issues in every phase of this R&D project — from data generation to data collection, storage, analysis, archiving, and destruction.
We are trying in this project to “integrate” ethical perspectives into the R&D project at its earliest stage through the active collaboration between scientists, engineers, and ethicists.
Outcome 3:
We analyzed the ethical issues concerning “mental manipulation” — one of the prominent issues in our R&D project. Mental manipulation as such is everywhere, but it has been unclear what makes manipulation ethically problematic. The insight from this ethical inquiry will tell us what kind of supportive intervention is (im)permissible in Jizai Hon-yaku-ki.
3. Future plans
We go on with the ongoing collaboration between scholars from various academic disciplines to achieve consensus on important ELSI on our R&D project.
Our R&D Theme 6 is broadening further the scope of issues addressed. We also have a plan to compile a recommendation/opinion document, or a “guidebook,” to address various ELSI-related problems attributed to Jizai Hon-yaku-ki and communication aids in general.
(Tohoku U: N. Osumi)