EthicsLab Insights
Discover the latest from the EthicsLab: Showcasing our work, event recaps and insightful articles on ethical matters.
Self-Driving Cars & Care Bots: Why ‘Independence’ Beats ‘Autonomy’ in AI Ethics
Can a self-driving car truly be ‘autonomous’? What does it mean for an AI to ‘govern itself or for a so-called ‘autonomous weapon’ to make life-or-death decisions?
Debate and Provocations: Who Cleans Up After Failed Implants?
What happens when your life-saving implant's maker goes bankrupt? Who's responsible when technology outlives its creators, but patients still depend on it?
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The Global Empire of AI: Whose Vision of the World Is Taking Hold?
Rachel Adams' "The New Empire of AI: The Future of Global Inequality" reveals how AI extends colonial power structures, exploiting resources while promising progress. It creates algorithmic governance systems that deepen global inequities.
Read more
Solidarity: Embodied and Enacted
Recently the Global Health Solidarity Project, the Southern African Rural Women's Assembly (RWA) and UCT EthicsLab co-hosted an immersive summer school exploring solidarity.
Read more
Bridging the Brain Divide: Neuroethics and Justice in Africa
Webinar recap: Neuroscience is making leaps and bounds globally, but the recent webinar Emerging Frontiers in Neuroethics reminded us that these advancements must benefit everyone, not just a privileged few.
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Should stereotypes about African sex workers be rallied to bolster HIV prevention advocacy?
HIV PrEP lenacapavir could fundamentally change the trajectory of HIV globally – should stereotypes about African sex workers be rallied to bolster advocacy for a reduction in price?
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Artificial Intelligence and Development in Africa
Webinar recap: Yousif Hassan argues that Artificial Intelligence and development in Africa are not just about technology and innovation but also about desirable AI futures and the political imaginations sustaining them.
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The politics of knowledge in the biomedical sciences: South/African perspectives
Book launch: The EthicsLab invited co-editor Jess Auerbach and four contributors of the book for a discussion around the knowledge-power nexus in the biomedical sciences.
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Can generative AI shift power?
Webinar Recap: A dynamic panel discussion on ethical questions surrounding race, power, and representation in generative artificial intelligence programs from the diverse fields of global health and fashion.
Read more
Engaging Africa ethically
Webinar recap: Kickstarting conversations about how knowledge from the African humanities could inform the ethical questions posed by new and emerging health technologies.
Read more
Self-Driving Cars & Care Bots: Why ‘Independence’ Beats ‘Autonomy’ in AI Ethics
Can a self-driving car truly be ‘autonomous’? What does it mean for an AI to ‘govern itself or for a so-called ‘autonomous weapon’ to make life-or-death decisions?
Read more
The Global Empire of AI: Whose Vision of the World Is Taking Hold?
Rachel Adams' "The New Empire of AI: The Future of Global Inequality" reveals how AI extends colonial power structures, exploiting resources while promising progress. It creates algorithmic governance systems that deepen global inequities.
Read more
Artificial Intelligence as Worldmaking: Colonial Dimensions and Planetary Futures
Event recap: The EthicsLab hosted a retreat at the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study bringing scholars from Africa and Latin America together to explore the idea of AI as a force of worldmaking.
Read more
Artificial Intelligence and Development in Africa
Webinar recap: Yousif Hassan argues that Artificial Intelligence and development in Africa are not just about technology and innovation but also about desirable AI futures and the political imaginations sustaining them.
Read more
Decolonising Digital Futures
Webinar recap: Sebastián Lehuedé critically explores the colonial dimensions of AI in Chile and whether embracing digital sovereignty is a suitable response.
Read more
Are emerging technologies colonial?
Webinar recap: A panel discussion exploring the ethical and political significance of concepts such as AI, data and digital colonialism and the relevance of these concepts within the African context and the broader global South.
Read more
Can generative AI shift power?
Webinar Recap: A dynamic panel discussion on ethical questions surrounding race, power, and representation in generative artificial intelligence programs from the diverse fields of global health and fashion.
Read more
Engaging Africa ethically
Webinar recap: Kickstarting conversations about how knowledge from the African humanities could inform the ethical questions posed by new and emerging health technologies.
Read more
The Global Empire of AI: Whose Vision of the World Is Taking Hold?
Rachel Adams' "The New Empire of AI: The Future of Global Inequality" reveals how AI extends colonial power structures, exploiting resources while promising progress. It creates algorithmic governance systems that deepen global inequities.
Read more
Nyamnjoh’s Digital Uprising: Navigating the Ethics of Technology and Politics in Africa
Republished: A review of Prof Francis Nyamnjoh’s novel "Digital Uprising: The Flower of Freedom in Mimboland", where he masterfully weaves ethics throughout and examines its implications for leadership and technology.
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The Cost of Caring: Why Empathy Might Be Breaking Healthcare
‘You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.’ — Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
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Capacity, consent, and reproductive decision-making
Clinical Ethics Forum recap: Recent cases brought to the Clinical Ethics Forum reminded me us about the sometimes tricky relationship between the law and morality and the tension between what is the case and what should be the case
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Reason and Rationality in Treatment Decisions
Clinical Ethics Forum recap: First do no harm – the oath may be sacrosanct, but what can clinicians do when reality, and patient rights, get in the way?
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Supererogation in the Healthcare Setting
Clinical Ethics Forum recap: Is it ever justifiable to administer ARVs to a patient who refuses treatment? What if she’s pregnant?
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Kids should be encouraged to talk back – 5 tips for teaching them critical thinking skills
Republished from The Conversation: Teaching kids to think critically sets them up well for life.
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Children and the internet: helping kids navigate this modern minefield
Republished from The Conversation: Help your children navigate the risks, identify the ethical pitfalls and enjoy the benefits of social media platforms and the internet.
Read more
Are emerging technologies colonial?
Webinar recap: A panel discussion exploring the ethical and political significance of concepts such as AI, data and digital colonialism and the relevance of these concepts within the African context and the broader global South.
Read more
Debate and Provocations: Who Cleans Up After Failed Implants?
What happens when your life-saving implant's maker goes bankrupt? Who's responsible when technology outlives its creators, but patients still depend on it?
Read more
The Global Empire of AI: Whose Vision of the World Is Taking Hold?
Rachel Adams' "The New Empire of AI: The Future of Global Inequality" reveals how AI extends colonial power structures, exploiting resources while promising progress. It creates algorithmic governance systems that deepen global inequities.
Read more
Artificial Intelligence as Worldmaking: Colonial Dimensions and Planetary Futures
Event recap: The EthicsLab hosted a retreat at the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study bringing scholars from Africa and Latin America together to explore the idea of AI as a force of worldmaking.
Read more
The politics of knowledge in the biomedical sciences: South/African perspectives
Book launch: The EthicsLab invited co-editor Jess Auerbach and four contributors of the book for a discussion around the knowledge-power nexus in the biomedical sciences.
Read more
Centering Africa as context and driver for Global Health Ethics: incompleteness, conviviality and the limits of Ubuntu
Republished: Silences exist in global health ethics scholarship because of the particular caricatures of Africa that abound in the world, and these silences profoundly impact scholarship in this field.
Read more
Inequality and International Partnerships in Global Health: The Case of Ebola Vaccine Trials
Amid calls for equity in international research collaborations, Dr Marlyn Faure contends that inequality underwrites the values of clinical trials and international partnerships in Global Health interventions in Africa.
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Debate and Provocations: Who Cleans Up After Failed Implants?
What happens when your life-saving implant's maker goes bankrupt? Who's responsible when technology outlives its creators, but patients still depend on it?
Read more
From Theory to Action: A Hands-On Workshop Experience
Ever wondered how human-centred design can help tackle real-world problems?
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Let’s not move fast and break things: why caution is needed in our approach to heritable human genome editing (HHGE)
The premature adoption of genome editing technologies like the CRISPR-Cas9 system for clinical applications will more likely lead to biomedical abuses and unintended harms due to the removal of reasonable legal and ethical safeguards.
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The Legal and Ethical Debate on Human Heritable Genome Editing (HHGE) in South Africa
The controversy and conflicting interpretations of the law around human heritable genome editing (HHGE) in South Africa raises significant concerns among the South African legal, ethical, and scientific communities.
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Ethics Washing: The Misappropriation of Ubuntu in the Ethics of Heritable Human Genome Editing (HHGE)
Using superficial ethical language to legitimize an agenda — in this case, a liberal one focused on expanding HHGE policy — while concealing a lack of substantive engagement with the invoked principles
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Challenging the Dismissal of Lived Experiences: Confronting Gaslighting and Epistemic Injustice in Sex Work and LGBTI research and policy
Voices of the LGBTI and sex work communities have often been systematically silenced and violently oppressed. This history of gaslight has to stop.
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From Theory to Action: A Hands-On Workshop Experience
Ever wondered how human-centred design can help tackle real-world problems?
Read more
Reflections from Masters Students at the EthicsLab
Here’s a little glimpse into our journey so far: messy, challenging, and rewarding.
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Children and the internet: helping kids navigate this modern minefield
Republished from The Conversation: Help your children navigate the risks, identify the ethical pitfalls and enjoy the benefits of social media platforms and the internet.
Read more
Solidarity: Embodied and Enacted
Recently the Global Health Solidarity Project, the Southern African Rural Women's Assembly (RWA) and UCT EthicsLab co-hosted an immersive summer school exploring solidarity.
Read more
Legislating solidarity?
Human rights, ethics and the movement towards a Right to International Solidarity.
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Sowing seeds of life and solidarity
Photo Essay: The inspiring seed research journey of Southern African rural women as told through a photo-documentary series, Guardians of Seed, Land and Life.
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Self-Driving Cars & Care Bots: Why ‘Independence’ Beats ‘Autonomy’ in AI Ethics
Can a self-driving car truly be ‘autonomous’? What does it mean for an AI to ‘govern itself or for a so-called ‘autonomous weapon’ to make life-or-death decisions?
Read more
Debate and Provocations: Who Cleans Up After Failed Implants?
What happens when your life-saving implant's maker goes bankrupt? Who's responsible when technology outlives its creators, but patients still depend on it?
Read more
Just do(pe) it? Why the academic project is at risk from proposals to pharmacologically enhance researchers.
Republished: The justifiability and potential risks of cognitive enhancement in academia.
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Snapscan for beggars?
Republished: Increasing shift to cashless transactions will require more than handouts to those in need.
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Bridging the Brain Divide: Neuroethics and Justice in Africa
Webinar recap: Neuroscience is making leaps and bounds globally, but the recent webinar Emerging Frontiers in Neuroethics reminded us that these advancements must benefit everyone, not just a privileged few.
Read more
Centering Africa as context and driver for Global Health Ethics: incompleteness, conviviality and the limits of Ubuntu
Republished: Silences exist in global health ethics scholarship because of the particular caricatures of Africa that abound in the world, and these silences profoundly impact scholarship in this field.
Read more
Artificial Intelligence and Development in Africa
Webinar recap: Yousif Hassan argues that Artificial Intelligence and development in Africa are not just about technology and innovation but also about desirable AI futures and the political imaginations sustaining them.
Read more
Decolonising Digital Futures
Webinar recap: Sebastián Lehuedé critically explores the colonial dimensions of AI in Chile and whether embracing digital sovereignty is a suitable response.
Read more
Reason and Rationality in Treatment Decisions
Clinical Ethics Forum recap: First do no harm – the oath may be sacrosanct, but what can clinicians do when reality, and patient rights, get in the way?
Read more
Are emerging technologies colonial?
Webinar recap: A panel discussion exploring the ethical and political significance of concepts such as AI, data and digital colonialism and the relevance of these concepts within the African context and the broader global South.
Read more
Can generative AI shift power?
Webinar Recap: A dynamic panel discussion on ethical questions surrounding race, power, and representation in generative artificial intelligence programs from the diverse fields of global health and fashion.
Read more
Engaging Africa ethically
Webinar recap: Kickstarting conversations about how knowledge from the African humanities could inform the ethical questions posed by new and emerging health technologies.
Read more