Ethics for people who work in tech – How to integrate ethics in your projects

This website accompanies the book Ethics for people who work in tech, by Marc Steen, published by Taylor & Francis/CRC Press (2023). Please have a look at the great reviews by Professor Shannon Vallor (‘… a staggeringly clear, accessible, richly comprehensive and engaging guide to understanding how ethics meets practice for those who build, use or deploy technology in their work.‘) and Professor Mark Coeckelbergh (‘… Highly recommended for tech professionals and anyone interested in how to integrate ethics into tech projects and innovation processes.’). Hopefully, you too will enjoy reading the book and find it valuable.

[Home] [Resources] [Exemplars]

You can browse online resources that supplement the book’s chapters; e.g., videos of talks, or articles for further reading.

You can go to 16 short portraits of people who exemplify specific virtues; these exemplars can inspire you to cultivate virtues.

Rapid Ethical Deliberation Canvas, to facilitate workshops to integrate ethics into your projects:

Series of articles in ComputerWeekly.com: Ethics as a process of reflection and deliberation; Alternative perspectives: relational and virtue ethics in tech; and Ethical perspectives on ChatGPT. Freely available for personal use.

Summary of the book: Ethics as a participatory and iterative process, Communications of the ACM, 66, 5 (2023), pp. 27-29.

Essay: The Problem with the Trolley Problem and the Need for Systems Thinking, Communications of the ACM, 6 May 2024.

Essay: Learning From Indigenous Cultures, IEEE Technology and Society Magazine, 41, 4 (2022), pp. 39-43.

Interview: Ethics for Technologists: A Conversation with Marc Steen, Research-Technology Management, 66, 6 (2023), pp. 15-20.

Book review by Andrew P. Rebera: ‘Doing’ technology ethics: Review of Marc Steen’s ‘Ethics for people who work in tech‘, Journal of Ethics and Emerging Technologies, 33 (1), 2023: ‘Its overall project—practical advice on how to think about and implement ethics in tech—is well-conceived. Steen delivers on the project too: ideas are presented accessibly, without dumbing-down; technical terminology is introduced but neither relied on nor hidden behind; in style, the author is present but not overbearing, advises without preaching, instructs without talking down.’

Book review by Kobi Leins: ‘M. Steen, Ethics for People who Work in Tech‘, Prometheus, 39 (3), 2023, pp. 203-206: ‘The entry point to this text is delightful, easy, self-aware and textured. It draws the reader in and demands curiosity, not positioning nor answers.’ ‘This book is a valuable contribution to a joint conversation, adding to a generalist knowledge, understanding and lingo that we desperately need. As Statler and Waldorf on The Muppets would say, ‘More, more!’.’

Podcast: Ethical Machines: Ethics for people who work in tech (September 2024)

Podcast: Machine Ethics: Doing Ethics with Marc Steen (May 2023).

Podcast: Redefining Society with Marco Ciappelli: Book | Ethics for People Who Work in Tech | A Conversation with Author Marc Steen (23 Sept 2023).

Podcast: Getting Technology Right, by Dr. Kevin Macnish: A conversation with Marc Steen about Ethics for people who work in tech (1 Feb 2024).

Presentation: Ethics for people who work in tech: How to integrate ethics in your projects at Big Data Analytics UK, London, 9 November 2022. Other, similar presentations (‘book tour’):