ChatGPT became the fastest-growing app in history when it surpassed 100 million users in January 2023. It’s a mind-boggling number, considering it was released to the masses a mere two months prior, in November 2022. Threads later broke that record in five days in July 2023. The sheer speed at which technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and social media are developing highlights a crucial question: Are we creating technologies that not only advance humanity’s capabilities but also serve a higher good?
Traditional technology system design often prioritizes operational capabilities and market speed over ethical considerations. This pattern has intensified with the push for quicker AI development, leading to a familiar cycle: a new product hits the market, ethical and social challenges arise, and businesses scramble to address them after the fact.
The consequences can be dramatic. In early 2024, AI-generated songs using unauthorized voice clones of artists like Drake, The Weeknd, and Taylor Swift went viral. The track "Heart on My Sleeve" accumulated millions of streams before being removed from platforms, illustrating how AI voice synthesis technology rapidly outpaced both legal and ethical considerations around artists' rights.
This challenge is exactly what Young, Roth, and their colleagues—Yaping Zhu (Middle Tennessee State University), Alan R. Hevner (University of South Florida), and Syed Shuva (University of North Carolina) tackle in their latest study, "Ethical design through grounding and evaluation: The EDGE method for designing information systems for social impact."
The EDGE method offers a systematic approach to applying ethical principles directly into the design process, ensuring that social impact is not an afterthought but a core design consideration. The method responds to growing evidence that retroactive fixes to ethical problems are both more costly and less effective than proactive ethical design.
- Selecting an Ethical Framework Teams choose a robust ethical foundation that aligns with their goals and values. The research focuses on one approach centered on freedom and empowerment—ensuring that technology empowers people to act independently, think clearly, feel included, and express themselves freely rather than controlling or limiting them.
- Developing Overarching Design Principles Abstract ethical ideas are transformed into practical guidelines. For example, if the framework emphasizes fairness, a business might develop principles like "ensure equal access" or "prevent discriminatory outcomes." These principles become a North Star, guiding all design decisions.
- Creating Context-Specific Design Rules High-level principles are converted into specific, actionable rules for the project. If one principle focuses on user privacy, corresponding rules specify exactly how data should be collected, stored, and protected.
- Developing Success Measurements Teams create clear statements describing each design rule's expected social impact, establishing measurable goals for ethical design choices. This provides a basis for answering: "How will we know if our ethical design is actually working?"
- Systematic Evaluation The final step involves systematically analyzing the design by testing whether the system genuinely treats humans as distinct from machines and respects their rights to freedom. This process helps identify gaps between intended and actual ethical outcomes.
The method isn't just theoretical—it's been tested with Stadtwerke Leipzig, a German energy utility company facing a trust crisis. The company had introduced green energy tariffs, but customers were skeptical and believed they were victims of greenwashing. To address this issue, the utility developed a customer loyalty app, NexoEnergy, to promote and explain the use of green energy tariffs.
By using the EDGE method, the researchers evaluated the initial app design and its redesign, allowing them to ground the app's design in ethical principles and systematically assess its social impact.
By incorporating ethical considerations from the outset of the design process, the EDGE method helps organizations:
- Reduce the risk of unintended negative consequences
- Build trust with users and stakeholders
- Create products and services that contribute positively to society
- Offer differentiation in the market through ethical leadership
We exist in a time when global adoption of new technology can happen in weeks rather than years, making approaches like EDGE no longer optional but imperative. By providing a systematic method to embed ethical considerations directly into the technological design process, EDGE offers a pathway to creating innovations that are not merely powerful but fundamentally aligned with human values and social good.
When we stop to ask "should we" instead of "can we," we prioritize thoughtful creation and human well-being over mere technological possibilities. This research positions Walton College at the forefront of responsible innovation, demonstrating how academic research can create practical solutions for one of our era's most pressing challenges. ¬