Jason Borenstein
Director of Graduate Research Ethics Programs
- Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School of Public Policy
Overview
Jason Borenstein, Ph.D., is the Director of Graduate Research Ethics Programs. His appointment is divided between the School of Public Policy and the Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Education. He has directed Georgia Tech's Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) Program since 2006. He is currently a Program Director at the U.S. National Science Foundation. He previously served as Georgia Tech's interim Research Integrity Officer (RIO).
Dr. Borenstein is an IEEE Society for Social Implications of Technology (SSIT) Board of Governors Member at Large, an IEEE SSIT Technical Committee on Ethics/Human Values member, and an IEEE Transactions on Technology and Society Publications Board Member. He is an International Editorial Advisory Board member of the Springer journal Science and Engineering Ethics, a Founding Editorial Board member of the Springer journal AI and Ethics, co-editor of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy’s Ethics and Information Technology section, and an editorial board member of the journal Accountability in Research. He previously was a member of Association for Practical and Professional Ethics (APPE) Board of Directors and Chair of the APPE Research Integrity Scholars and Educators (RISE) Consortium. He also served as Editor for Research Ethics for the National Academy of Engineering's Online Ethics Center for Engineering and Science.
Dr. Borenstein’s teaching and research interests include robot & artificial intelligence ethics, engineering ethics, responsible conduct of research, and bioethics. He was the co-leader of the ethics and trust research efforts for the NSF-funded AI Institute for Collaborative Assistance and Responsive Interaction for Networked Groups (AI-CARING). He has been the Principal Investigator (PI) on projects funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) including "Institutional Transformation: The Role of Service Learning and Community Engagement on the Ethical Development of STEM Students and Campus Culture." He was a Co-PI on the NSF-funded projects “Do the Right Thing: Competing Ethical Frameworks Mediated by Moral Emotions in Human-robot Interaction" and “Fairness, Ethics, Accountability, and Transparency (FEAT) in Computer and Information Science and Engineering Workshop” that took place August 29 and 30, 2019 on Georgia Tech's campus. In addition, he was formerly a Co-PI on a Mozilla Responsible Computer Science Challenge funded project.
His work has appeared in numerous professional journals including the Journal of Engineering Education, AI & Society, Communications of the ACM, Science and Engineering Ethics, Ethics and Information Technology, IEEE Transactions on Technology and Society, IEEE Technology & Society Magazine, and Accountability in Research. He has been a grant reviewer for federal agencies including the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.
Dr. Borenstein is affiliated faculty at Georgia Tech's Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Machines (IRIM) and had served as part of the leadership team for the Georgia Tech Ethics, Technology, and Human Interaction Center (ETHICx). From 2017 until 2021, he was a member of the Georgia State University – Georgia Institute of Technology Joint Center for Advanced Brain Imaging (CABI) Institutional Review Board (IRB) and the Regulatory Knowledge & Support Program within the Georgia Clinical & Translational Science Alliance (Georgia CTSA).
- M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy, University of Miami
- B.S. in Biology and B.A. in Philosophy, Emory University
Distinctions:
- IAC Million Dollar Club/Faculty Research Award, Ivan Allen College, 2024
- IAC Million Dollar Club/Faculty Research Award, Ivan Allen College, 2023
- IAC Million Dollar Club/Faculty Research Award, Ivan Allen College, 2022
- Gold Star Award, Ivan Allen College, 2021
- Faculty of the Year, School of Public Policy, 2020
Interests
- Ethics and Philosophy of Science and Technology
- Health
- Assessment
- Bioethics, Bioscience, Biotechnology
- Campus-Community Engagement
- Community engagement
- Education
- Emerging Technologies - Innovation
- Ethical Practices in Contemporary Contexts
- Human/Machine Interaction
- Philosophy
- Problem-Based Learning
- Science and Technology
Courses
- PHIL-3105: Ethical Theories
- PHIL-3109: Engineering Ethics
- PHIL-4811: Special Topics
- PHIL-6000: Responsible Conduct-Res
- PHIL-6010: Biotech Research Ethics
- PHIL-6710: Ethics Biotech Research
- PST-3105: Ethical Theories
- PST-3109: Ethics&Tech Profession
- PST-3127: Sci,Tech & Human Values
- PST-8000: Responsible Condut-Res
- PUBP-8801: Special Topics
- PUBP-8803: Special Topics
- PUBP-8811: Special Topics
Publications
Selected Publications
Journal Articles
- AI Ethics in the Public, Private, and NGO Sectors: A Review of a Global Document Collection
In: IEEE Transactions on Technology and Society [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2021
- Linking Personal and Professional Social Responsibility Development to Microethics and Macroethics: Observations From Early Undergraduate Education
In: Journal for Engineering Education [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2021
- The Boeing 737 MAX: Lessons for Engineering Ethics
In: Science and Engineering Ethics [Peer Reviewed]
Date: July 2020
- Trust and Pediatric Exoskeletons: A Comparative Study of Clinician and Parental Perspectives
In: IEEE Transactions on Technology and Society [Peer Reviewed]
Date: June 2020
- Self-Driving Cars and Engineering Ethics: The Need for a System Level Analysis
In: Science and Engineering Ethics [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2019
- The Ugly Truth About Ourselves and Our Robot Creations: The Problem of Bias and Social Inequity
In: Science and Engineering Ethics [Peer Reviewed]
Date: October 2018
- Self-Driving Cars: Ethical Responsibilities of Design Engineers
In: IEEE Technology and Society Magazine [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2017
- Nudging for Good: Robots and the Ethical Appropriateness of Nurturing Empathy and Charitable Behavior
In: AI & Society [Peer Reviewed]
Date: November 2016
- Robotic Nudges: The Ethics of Engineering a More Socially Just Human Being
In: Science and Engineering Ethics [Peer Reviewed]
Date: February 2016
Other Publications
- What’s Next for AI Ethics, Policy, and Governance? A Global Overview
In: SocArXiv
Date: December 2019
All Publications
Books
- RCR for Engineering: An Introduction to Ethics and Engineering Research, edited by Jason Borenstein with Daniel Smith, CITI Program at the University of Miami.
Date: 2015
Journal Articles
- AI Ethics in the Public, Private, and NGO Sectors: A Review of a Global Document Collection
In: IEEE Transactions on Technology and Society [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2021
- AI Ethics: A Long History and a Recent Burst of Attention
In: Computer
Date: 2021
- Linking Personal and Professional Social Responsibility Development to Microethics and Macroethics: Observations From Early Undergraduate Education
In: Journal for Engineering Education [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2021
- Autonomous Vehicles and the Ethical Tension Between Occupant and Non-Occupant Safety
In: Journal of Sociotechnical Critique
Date: November 2020
- The Boeing 737 MAX: Lessons for Engineering Ethics
In: Science and Engineering Ethics [Peer Reviewed]
Date: July 2020
- Trust and Pediatric Exoskeletons: A Comparative Study of Clinician and Parental Perspectives
In: IEEE Transactions on Technology and Society [Peer Reviewed]
Date: June 2020
- AI, Robots, and Ethics in the Age of COVID-19
In: MIT Sloan Management Review
Date: May 2020
- Trust and Bias in Robots
In: American Scientist
Date: March 2019
- Self-Driving Cars and Engineering Ethics: The Need for a System Level Analysis
In: Science and Engineering Ethics [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2019
- The Ugly Truth About Ourselves and Our Robot Creations: The Problem of Bias and Social Inequity
In: Science and Engineering Ethics [Peer Reviewed]
Date: October 2018
- Overtrust in the Robotic Age
In: Communications of the ACM
Date: September 2018
- Hacking the Human Bias in Robotics
In: ACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction
Date: May 2018
- Overtrust of Pediatric Healthcare Robots: A Preliminary Survey of Parent Perspectives
In: IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine: Special Issue on Socio-ethical Approaches to Robotics Development [Peer Reviewed]
Date: February 2018
- Ethical Principles for the Use of Human Cellular Biotechnologies
In: Nature Biotechnology
Date: November 2017
- Self-Driving Cars: Ethical Responsibilities of Design Engineers
In: IEEE Technology and Society Magazine [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2017
- Nudging for Good: Robots and the Ethical Appropriateness of Nurturing Empathy and Charitable Behavior
In: AI & Society [Peer Reviewed]
Date: November 2016
- Robotic Nudges: The Ethics of Engineering a More Socially Just Human Being
In: Science and Engineering Ethics [Peer Reviewed]
Date: February 2016
- Rethinking Authorship in the Era of Collaborative Research
In: Accountability in Research [Peer Reviewed]
Date: April 2015
© , Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.The size and complexity of research teams continues to grow, especially within the realms of science and engineering. This has intensified already existing concerns about relying on traditional authorship schemes as the way to allocate credit for a contribution to a research project. In this paper, we examine current authorship problems plaguing research communities and provide suggestions for how those problems could potentially be mitigated. We recommend that research communities, especially those involved in large scale collaborations, revisit the contributor model and embrace it as means for allocating credit more authentically and transparently.
- Understanding Ill-Structured Engineering Ethics Problems Through a Collaborative Learning and Argument Visualization Approach
In: Science and Engineering Ethics [Peer Reviewed]
Date: March 2014
As a committee of the National Academy of Engineering recognized, ethics education should foster the ability of students to analyze complex decision situations and ill-structured problems. Building on the NAE’s insights, we report about an innovative teaching approach that has two main features: first, it places the emphasis on deliberation and on self-directed, problem-based learning in small groups of students; and second, it focuses on understanding ill-structured problems. The first innovation is motivated by an abundance of scholarly research that supports the value of deliberative learning practices. The second results from a critique of the traditional case-study approach in engineering ethics. A key problem with standard cases is that they are usually described in such a fashion that renders the ethical problem as being too obvious and simplistic. The practitioner, by contrast, may face problems that are ill-structured. In the collaborative learning environment described here, groups of students use interactive and web-based argument visualization software called “AGORA-net: Participate – Deliberate!”. The function of the software is to structure communication and problem solving in small groups. Students are confronted with the task of identifying possible stakeholder positions and reconstructing their legitimacy by constructing justifications for these positions in the form of graphically represented argument maps. The argument maps are then presented in class so that these stakeholder positions and their respective justifications become visible and can be brought into a reasoned dialogue. Argument mapping provides an opportunity for students to collaborate in teams and to develop critical thinking and argumentation skills.
- Creating "Companions" for Children: The Ethics of Designing Aesthetic Features for Robots
In: AI and Society [Peer Reviewed]
Date: February 2014
Taking the term "companion" in a broad sense to include robot caregivers, playmates, assistive devices, and toys, we examine ethical issues that emerge from designing companion robots for children. We focus on the relative importance and potential ethical implications of creating robots with certain types of esthetic features. We include an examination of whether robots ought to be made to appear or act humanlike, and whether robots should be gendered. In our estimation, this line of ethical inquiry may even provide insight into the nature and appropriateness of existing institutions and widely accepted interactions among human beings. © 2012 Springer-Verlag London Limited.
- Contentious Problems in Bioscience and Biotechnology: A Pilot Study of an Approach to Ethics Education
In: Science and Engineering Ethics [Peer Reviewed]
Date: June 2013
- The Intervention of Robot Caregivers and the Cultivation of Children's Capability to Play
In: Science and Engineering Ethics [Peer Reviewed]
Date: March 2013
In this article, the authors examine whether and how robot caregivers can contribute to the welfare of children with various cognitive and physical impairments by expanding recreational opportunities for these children. The capabilities approach is used as a basis for informing the relevant discussion. Though important in its own right, having the opportunity to play is essential to the development of other capabilities central to human flourishing. Drawing from empirical studies, the authors show that the use of various types of robots has already helped some children with impairments. Recognizing the potential ethical pitfalls of robot caregiver intervention, however, the authors examine these concerns and conclude that an appropriately designed robot caregiver has the potential to contribute positively to the development of the capability to play while also enhancing the ability of human caregivers to understand and interact with care recipients. © 2011 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
- Companion Robots and the Emotional Development of Children
In: Law, Innovation and Technology
Date: 2013
- Robots and the Internet: Causes for Concern
In: IEEE Technology and Society Magazine
Date: 2013
- Robotics, Ethics, and the Environment
In: International Journal of Technoethics
Date: April 2012
- Responsible Authorship in Engineering Fields: An Overview of Current Ethical Challenges
In: Science and Engineering Ethics
Date: June 2011
- Robots and the changing workforce
In: AI and Society [Peer Reviewed]
Date: February 2011
The use of robotic workers is likely to continue to increase as time passes. Hence it is crucial to examine the types of effects this occurrence could have on employment patterns. Invariably, as new job opportunities emerge due to robotic innovations, others will be closed off. Further, the characteristics of the workforce in terms of age, education, and income could profoundly change as a result. © 2009 Springer-Verlag London Limited.
- International Governance of Autonomous Military Robots
In: Columbia Science and Technology Law Review [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2011
- Work life in the robotic age
In: Communications of the ACM
Date: July 2010
- The engineering and science Issues Test (ESIT): A discipline-specific approach to assessing moral judgment
In: Science and Engineering Ethics [Peer Reviewed]
Date: June 2010
To assess ethics pedagogy in science and engineering, we developed a new tool called the Engineering and Science Issues Test (ESIT). ESIT measures moral judgment in a manner similar to the Defining Issues Test, second edition, but is built around technical dilemmas in science and engineering. We used a quasi-experimental approach with pre- and post-tests, and we compared the results to those of a control group with no overt ethics instruction. Our findings are that several (but not all) stand-alone classes showed a significant improvement compared to the control group when the metric includes multiple stages of moral development. We also found that the written test had a higher response rate and sensitivity to pedagogy than the electronic version. We do not find significant differences on pre-test scores with respect to age, education level, gender or political leanings, but we do on whether subjects were native English speakers. We did not find significant differences on pre-test scores based on whether subjects had previous ethics instruction; this could suggest a lack of a long-term effect from the instruction. © 2009 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
- Robot Caregivers: Harbingers of Expanded Freedom for All?
In: Ethics and Information Technology
Date: 2010
- The wisdom of caution: Genetic enhancement and future children
In: Science and Engineering Ethics [Peer Reviewed]
Date: December 2009
Many scholars predict that the technology to modify unborn children genetically is on the horizon. According to supporters of genetic enhancement, allowing parents to select a child's traits will enable him/her to experience a better life. Following their logic, the technology will not only increase our knowledge base and generate cures for genetic illness, but it may enable us to increase the intelligence, strength, and longevity of future generations as well. Yet it must be examined whether supporters of genetic enhancement, especially libertarians, adequately appreciate the ethical hazards emerging from the technology, including whether its use might violate the harm principle. © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009.
- The endless "controversy:" Evolution and its critics
In: Studies in Ethics, Law, and Technology
Date: June 2009
The debate about evolution continues as another category of critics seeks to challenge its merits. These critics put forward intelligent design (ID) as a scientific rival to evolution. For those familiar with the relevant history, this occurrence resurrects a cycle of debate about evolution that never seems to end. The purpose of this article is to identify key reasons why debate about evolution remains with us. Copyright © 2009 The Berkeley Electronic Press. All rights reserved.
- The expanding purview: Institutional review boards and the review of human subjects research
In: Accountability in Research [Peer Reviewed]
Date: December 2008
The implications of the institutional review board (IRB) system's growing purview are examined. Among the issues discussed are whether IRBs are censoring research and whether the IRB review process fundamentally alters the research that is being conducted. The intersection between IRB review and free speech is also explored. In general, it is argued that the review system for human subjects research (HSR) should be modified in order to limit the scope of IRB review. © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
- Taking Conflicts of Interest Seriously Without Overdoing It: The Promises and Perils of Academic-Industry Partnerships
In: Journal of Academic Ethics [Peer Reviewed]
Date: September 2008
- Textbook stickers: A reasonable response to evolution?
In: Science and Education [Peer Reviewed]
Date: September 2008
Debates concerning how the issue of human life's origins should be handled within the confines of American public schools still continue. In order to mitigate the impact that evolution has on students, some school boards and state legislatures have recommended that stickers voicing a disclaimer about evolution be placed in biology textbooks. Even though supporters maintain that textbook stickers promote good science, this kind of approach invariably raises the concern that public education might be unduly intertwined with religion. In this article, it is argued that regardless of whether a textbook sticker can pass constitutional scrutiny, the use of such a sticker is a flawed approach to science education. © 2006 Springer Science+Business Media, Inc.
- Privacy: A Non-Existent Entity
In: IEEE Technology & Society Magazine [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2008
- The ethics of autonomous military robots
In: Studies in Ethics, Law, and Technology [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2008
- Shaping our future: the implications of genetic enhancement
In: Human reproduction and genetic ethics [Peer Reviewed]
Date: December 2007
- A Review of Tal Golan’s Laws of Men and Laws of Nature - The History of Expert Scientific Testimony in England and America
In: American Journal of Legal History
Date: 2006
- DNA in the Legal System: The Benefits Are Clear, the Problems Aren’t Always
In: Cardozo Public Law, Policy and Ethics Journal [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2006
- Bright new world: A Review of Ronald Bailey’s Liberation Biology: The Scientific and Moral Case for the Biotech Revolution
In: Nature Biotechnology
Date: 2005
- Meaningful Speech
In: Web Journal of Current Legal Issues
Date: 2005
- Death Penalty: Conceptual and Empirical Issues
In: Cardozo Public Law, Policy and Ethics Journal [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2004
- Authenticating Expertise: Philosophical and Legal Issues.
In: International Journal of Applied Philosophy [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2002
- Expertise and Epistemology: Can Laypersons Assess the Claims of Experts?
In: Philosophy in the Contemporary World [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2002
- Re-examining expert testimony
In: International Journal of Politics and Ethics [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2002
- The epistemic challenge of expert testimony
In: International Journal of Politics and Ethics [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2002
- An Account of Expertise: Goldman, Polanyi, and Beyond.
In: Appraisal [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2001
- Science, Philosophy, and the Courts
In: St. Thomas law review [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2001
Chapters
- Robots, Ethics, and Intimacy: The Need for Scientific Research
In: On the Cognitive, Ethical, and Scientific Dimensions of Artificial Intelligence: Themes from IACAP 2016
Date: 2019
- Pediatric Robotics and Ethics: The Robot is Ready to See You Now But Should It Be Trusted?
In: Robot Ethics 2.0
Date: 2017
- The Ethical Impact of an Increased Presence of Robots on Human-Human Interaction (HHI) within Aging Populations
In: What Social Robots Can and Should Do
Date: 2016
- Expert Testimony, Ethics of
In: International Encyclopedia of Ethics
Date: June 2015
- Reflections on Teaching RCR at an U.S. Engineering Institution
In: Integrity in the Global Research Arena
Date: 2015
- Ethical Issues in Geriatric Psychiatry
In: Principles and Practice of Geriatric Psychiatry (2nd edition)
Date: 2011
- Robot Caregivers: Ethical Issues Across the Human Lifespan
In: Robot Ethics: The Ethical and Social Implications of Robotics
Date: 2011
- Research Ethics Overview
In: Encyclopedia of Science and Technology Communication
Date: July 2010
- Science and Engineering Ethics
In: Encyclopedia of Science and Technology Communication
Date: July 2010
Conferences
- Why Should We Gender? The Effect of Robot Gendering and Occupational Stereotypes on Human Trust and Perceived Competency
In: Proceedings of 2020 ACM Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI’20)
Date: March 2020
- Undergraduate STEM Students and Community Engagement Activities: Initial Findings from an Assessment of Their Concern for Public Well-Being
In: 2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Date: June 2018
- Workshop - Assessing Science and Engineering Ethics Outcomes: An Interactive Review of Tools.
Date: May 2014
- Implementing a campus-wide RCR training requirement for doctoral students
Date: 2013
- Changing engineering ethics education: Understanding ill-structured problems through argument visualization in collaborative learning
Date: August 2012
As a committee organized in 2009 by the National Academy of Engineering recognized, ethics education should foster the ability to analyze complex decision situations and illstructured problems. This presentation aims to build on the NAE's insights and reports about an innovative teaching approach that has two main features: first, it places the emphasis on deliberation and on self-directed, problem-based learning in small groups of students; and second, it focuses on understanding ill-structured problems. The first innovation is motivated by an abundance of scholarly research that supports the value of deliberative learning practices. The second results from a critique of the traditional case-study approach in engineering ethics. A key problem with standard cases is that they are usually described in such a fashion that renders the ethical problem as being too obvious and simplistic. Any description that already ?frames" a case in this kind of way tends to trivialize the ethical challenge. The practitioner, by contrast, will mostly face problems that are ill-structured and for which it is not even clear if they include a real ethical challenge. In the collaborative learning environment described here, groups of students use interactive and web-based argument visualization software called ?AGORA- net: Participate - Deliberate!". The function of the software is to structure communication and problem solving in small groups. The software guides students step by step through a process of argument mapping. Students are confronted with the task of identifying possible stakeholder positions and reconstructing their legitimacy by constructing justifications for these positions in the form of graphically represented logical argument maps. The argument maps are then presented in class so that these stakeholder positions and their respective justifications become visible and can be brought into a reasoned dialogue and deliberative process. Argument mapping in engineering ethics courses provides an exciting opportunity for students to collaborate in teams and to develop critical thinking and argumentation skills. © 2012 American Society for Engineering Education. - Some Key Considerations When Developing Ethics Training for Science and Engineering Graduate Students.
Date: April 2009
- Test of Ethical Sensitivity in Science and Engineering (TESSE): A discipline-specific assessment tool for awareness of ethical issues
Date: December 2008
- AC 2008-339: The Test of Ethical Sensitivity in Science and Engineering (TESSE): a discipline-specific assessment tool for awareness of ethical issues
In: Proceedings of the 2008 Annual ASEE Conference
Date: 2008
Internet Publications
- Reflections on Daubert: A Look Back at the Supreme Court’s Decision
In: The Journal of Philosophy, Science & Law
Date: May 2015
- Recurrence of the Same? Intelligent Design and the Biology Classroom
In: Reports of the National Center for Science Education
Date: 2007
Presentations
- Confronting Ethical Issues in Biomedical Research: A Problem-Based Learning Approach and Consulting Model
Date: 2011
- Intelligent Design in the Classroom?
Date: 2006
Thesis / Dissertations
- Expertise and the Courts
Other Publications
- What’s Next for AI Ethics, Policy, and Governance? A Global Overview
In: SocArXiv
Date: December 2019
- Ethical Issues From Authorship to Human Subjects Research
In: Physics Today
Date: August 2018
- Obstacles to Ethical Engineering.
In: PE: The Magazine for Professional Engineers
Date: March 2009
- The Challenge of Being an Ethical Building Inspection Engineer.
In: The NABIE Examiner
Date: March 2009
- RCR for Engineers
In: Professional Ethics Report
Date: 2009
- Test of Ethical Sensitivity in Science and Engineering (TESSE)
Date: 2007
- Engineering and Science Issues Test (ESIT)
Date: 2006
- Intelligent Design: Religious Concerns Aside, It Is Still Troubling.
In: Professional Ethics Report
Date: 2006
- Geriatrics and Ethics Project
Date: 2005
- DNA Tests Spark Challenge to Morality of Death Penalty.
In: Florida Bioethics
Date: 2001
- Ethics Committees as Sources of Educational Opportunity.
In: Florida Bioethics
Date: 2001
- Scientific Experts and the Courts
In: Professional Ethics Report
Date: 2001
- The Change to OHRP
In: Professional Ethics Report
Date: 2000