Oaths, principles, checklists

A large variety of workers, in fields as diverse as psychology, engineerings, justice, medicine, journalism, … have developed oaths stating their commitment to a set of ethical principles.

Also data scientists from all over the world are elaborating, discussing, and adopting such oaths.

During the weekend, take a look at some examples:

• The Data 4 Democracy initiatives (a large, international, grass-root gathering of data scientists across industry and Academy) elaborated an ethical framework presented as a pledge (see also the manifesto).
• In the US, the “Committee on Envisioning the Data Science Discipline” published a rewrite of the Hippocratic Oath (which was originally taken by physicians in ancient Greece) updated for the data science practitioners. It’s published by the US’ National Academy of Sciences, and you can find it here.

Cathy O’Neill (we have read her already, when talking about Weapons of Math Destruction), wrote an interesting piece about the role of ethical oaths in data science (caveat: it’s a long interview)

activities

• Skim the oaths: are they compatible? What makes them different?
• Search online for other, similar, ethical principles, guidelines, or checklists for data science: both the Statistical Association and the ACM (the computer programmers association) recently developed or updated their code of ethics. Can you find any other one?
• Reflect: would you commit to an ethical guideline? If so, why? And if not, why not?