IEEE Standards Association Jointly Launches an Open Community for Ethics in Autonomous and Intelligent Systems with Nine Standards Developing Organizations (SDOs)

PISCATAWAY, NJ, 25 July 2018 – IEEE, the world’s largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for humanity, and the IEEE Standards Association (IEEE SA), today jointly launched and became a founding member of an Open Community for Ethics in Autonomous and Intelligent Systems (OCEANIS). This global forum brings together organizations interested in the development and use of standards as a means to address ethical matters in autonomous and intelligent systems.

Standards can help reassure end users and can play an important role in alleviating concerns regarding ethics. The community addresses a real need and opportunity for broad collaboration between all relevant national and international organizations to develop locally and globally applicable solutions that support technical, business and policy decisions.

Konstantinos Karachalios, managing director for IEEE SA, says, “IEEE SA’s initiative in the establishment of OCEANIS aligns with IEEE’s tagline and with the rationale behind IEEE’s Global Initiative on Ethics of Autonomous and Intelligent Systems. We are convinced that the complex ethical issues emerging in the development and deployment of such systems can only be addressed through processes that correspond to the envisioned principles, not through agreements behind closed doors. IEEE has already initiated an entirely new series of standardization projects open to any interested person and carried out through our rules-based and transparent process.”

OCEANIS participants consent to:

• Share information and coordinate on respective initiatives and programs
• Enhance understanding of the role of standards in facilitating innovation, and address problems that extend beyond technical solutions to addressing ethics and values
• Jointly organize events at the local/regional/global level
• Identify opportunities for concerted activities that strengthen the development and use of standards in addressing technical, societal and ethical implications arising from technology advancement.

The OCEANIS community is open to all interested organizations. In addition to IEEE SA, Founding Members include the:

• Austrian Electrotechnical Association (OVE)
• Austrian Standards International (A.S.I.)
• British Standards Institution (BSI)
• China Electronic Standardizations Institute (CESI)
• International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC)
• Ecuadorian Service for Standardization (INEN)
• National Standards Authority of Ireland (NSAI)
• Turkish Standards Institute (TSE)
• Verband und Deutsche Kommission Elektrotechnik Elektronik Informationstechnik (VDE/DKE)

The OCEANIS community is open and not-for-profit. For more information on OCEANIS, visit the community’s web page. If your organization is interested in participating in OCEANIS, please email [email protected].

To learn more about IEEE SA or about any of its many market-driven initiatives, visit us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, connect with us on LinkedIn, or on the Beyond Standards Blog.

IEEE Standards Association (IEEE SA) is a collaborative organization where innovators raise the world’s standards for technology. IEEE SA provides a globally open, consensus-building environment and platform that empowers people to work together in the development of leading-edge, market-relevant technology standards, and industry solutions shaping a better, safer and sustainable world. For more information, visit https://standards-qa21.ieee.org.

IEEE is the world’s largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity. Through its highly cited publications, conferences, technology standards, and professional and educational activities, IEEE is the trusted voice in a wide variety of areas ranging from aerospace systems, computers, and telecommunications to biomedical engineering, electric power, and consumer electronics. Learn more at https://www.ieee.org.