Top 10 emerging tech innovations and ethical dilemmas

With the rise of robots and automation in all facets of life, many questions are popping up about these emerging technologies and the future implications of widespread acceptance.

The Textalyzer — A new tool in the battle against texting and driving that tells police if you were on your phone before an accident. Photo courtesy of University of Notre Dame.

University of Notre Dame’s John J. Reilly Center for Science, Technology, and Values released its sixth annual list of emerging ethical dilemmas and policy issues in science and technology.

This year’s top 10 list was created by a team of Notre Dame undergraduates participating in a course titled “Man and Machine: Humanity, Technology, and the Future”, and was designed to get people thinking about the ethics of potentially controversial technology. Yet,  the 2018 list shows that many of these issues are already here.

The 2018 list

• Helix — A digital app store designed to help you read your genome.
• The Robot Priest — BlessU-2 and Pepper are the first robot priest and monk, respectively.
• Emotion-Sensing Facial Recognition — Optimizing retail experiences by assessing your reactions.
• Ransomware — Holding data hostage until you pay up, whether you’re an individual or a large corporation.
• The Textalyzer — A new tool in the battle against texting and driving that tells police if you were on your phone before an accident.
• Social Credit Systems — China will debut theirs in 2020, but do we already live in a world where online reputation is king?
• Google Clips — This little camera will watch you all day and capture your most picturesque moments.
• Sentencing Software — There are already Americans being sentenced with the help of a mysterious algorithm.
• The Rise of Robot Friendship — Can we create a chat bot out of our loved ones’ old texts and social media posts?
• The Citizen App — Live crime reporting may lead to vigilante justice.

For more information about the list or the individual projects, check out reillytop10.com.