Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies
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| Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies | |
|---|---|
| Name | Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies |
| Formation | 2001 |
| Type | Nonprofit think tank |
| Headquarters | West Hartford, Connecticut |
| Leader title | Executive Director |
| Leader name | Anders Sandberg |
Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies is an American nonprofit think tank focused on the ethical implications of emerging technologies, longevity research, cognitive enhancement, and futurist policy. The institute engages scholars, policy makers, activists, and technologists through publications, conferences, and public commentary, connecting debates in bioethics, artificial intelligence, and transhumanist advocacy.
History
The organization was founded in 2001 amid debates involving Nick Bostrom, Aubrey de Grey, Ray Kurzweil, James Hughes, and Max More about human enhancement, biotechnology, and cryonics. Early connections tied the institute to dialogues at venues such as Oxford University, the Future of Humanity Institute, and the Singularity Summit, and to actors including Eliezer Yudkowsky, Hans Moravec, Peter Thiel, Vernor Vinge, and Michio Kaku. Throughout the 2000s the institute published work alongside scholars from Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, University of Oxford, and University of Cambridge, and engaged with organizations such as AAAS, IEEE, UNESCO, World Economic Forum, Brookings Institution, and RAND Corporation. Its trajectory intersected with debates at the Human Genome Project, the Biosafety Protocol, the Asilomar Conference on Recombinant DNA, and discussions involving figures like Francis Collins, Craig Venter, Jennifer Doudna, and George Church.
Mission and Activities
The institute's stated mission centers on promoting ethical use of technologies championed by advocates such as Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, and critics like Sherry Turkle and Nicholas Carr. Activities range from policy analysis relating to CRISPR-Cas9 debates led by Emmanuelle Charpentier and Feng Zhang to advocacy on issues tied to autonomous vehicles discussed alongside companies like Google, Tesla, Inc., Uber, and regulators such as National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The institute convenes panels with participants from National Institutes of Health, Food and Drug Administration, European Medicines Agency, World Health Organization, and interacts with academic centers like Kennedy School of Government, Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics, Princeton University and Yale University.
Research and Publications
The institute has produced essays, policy briefs, and edited volumes featuring contributors such as Nick Bostrom, Anders Sandberg, James Hughes, Max More, Aubrey de Grey, Eliezer Yudkowsky, and scholars from Columbia University, University of Chicago, California Institute of Technology, Johns Hopkins University, and Duke University. Topics have included lifespan extension debated alongside research by Cynthia Kenyon, David Sinclair, Leonard Hayflick, and S. Jay Olshansky; neuroenhancement in context with studies from Nancy Kanwisher, Christof Koch, Michael Gazzaniga; and artificial intelligence safety engaging voices from Stuart Russell, Geoffrey Hinton, Yoshua Bengio, Demis Hassabis, and Sam Altman. Publication outlets and collaborations extended to journals and platforms associated with Nature, Science, Cell, The Lancet, Journal of Medical Ethics, Philosophy & Technology, Futures, and Technological Forecasting and Social Change.
Conferences and Events
The institute organized and co-sponsored conferences and workshops connected to gatherings like the Singularity Summit, TransVision, World Transhumanist Association meetings, panels at AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence, symposia at NeurIPS, sessions at SXSW, and roundtables at United Nations forums. Events featured speakers from MIT Media Lab, Salk Institute, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, Max Planck Society, Wellcome Trust, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, European Commission, and think tanks including Cato Institute, Heritage Foundation, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and Council on Foreign Relations.
Funding and Organization
Funding sources reported have included private donations, foundation grants, and individual supporters associated with philanthropists such as Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Ted Nelson, and organizations like Future of Life Institute, Longevity Fund, SENS Research Foundation, Foresight Institute, X Prize Foundation, and Open Philanthropy. Governance involved advisory board members and directors drawn from institutions including Oxford Martin School, Harvard Kennedy School, Berkman Klein Center, New America Foundation, Institute for Advanced Study, and networks connected to Singularity University and IEEE Standards Association.
Criticisms and Controversies
Critiques of the institute have paralleled wider disputes involving transhumanism, bioethics, and technology policy, drawing commentary from scholars like Michael Sandel, Jürgen Habermas, Noam Chomsky, Laurence Tribe, and Naomi Klein. Controversies included debates over enhancement ethics similar to those in President's Council on Bioethics, disputes over risk assessment reminiscent of Precautionary Principle controversies, and public disagreements analogous to controversies faced by DARPA, Facebook, Google DeepMind, and Cambridge Analytica. Critics from institutions such as University of California, Berkeley, University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, Brown University, and New York University raised concerns about equity, regulatory capture, and social consequences echoed in reports by OECD, European Parliament, and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.