Integrating Comprehensive Human Oversight in Drone Deployment: A Conceptual Framework Applied to the Case of Military Surveillance Drones
Accountability is a value often mentioned in the debate on intelligent systems and their increased pervasiveness in our society. When focusing specifically on autonomous systems, a critical gap emerges: although there is much work on governance and attribution of accountability, there is a significa...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2021-09-01
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| Series: | Information |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2078-2489/12/9/385 |
| _version_ | 1797518849730412544 |
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| author | Ilse Verdiesen Andrea Aler Tubella Virginia Dignum |
| author_facet | Ilse Verdiesen Andrea Aler Tubella Virginia Dignum |
| author_sort | Ilse Verdiesen |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Accountability is a value often mentioned in the debate on intelligent systems and their increased pervasiveness in our society. When focusing specifically on autonomous systems, a critical gap emerges: although there is much work on governance and attribution of accountability, there is a significant lack of methods for the operationalisation of accountability within the socio-technical layer of autonomous systems. In the case of autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles or drones—the critical question of how to maintain accountability as they undertake fully autonomous flights becomes increasingly important as their uses multiply in both the commercial and military fields. In this paper, we aim to fill the operationalisation gap by proposing a socio-technical framework to guarantee human oversight and accountability in drone deployments, showing its enforceability in the real case of military surveillance drones. By keeping a focus on accountability and human oversight as values, we align with the emphasis placed on human responsibility, while requiring a concretisation of what these principles mean for each specific application, connecting them with concrete socio-technical requirements. In addition, by constraining the framework to observable elements of pre- and post-deployment, we do not rely on assumptions made on the internal workings of the drone nor the technical fluency of the operator. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T07:35:13Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-ce99aa8e716241a7ac9da92c74dbef1f |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2078-2489 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T07:35:13Z |
| publishDate | 2021-09-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Information |
| spelling | doaj.art-ce99aa8e716241a7ac9da92c74dbef1f2023-11-22T13:35:41ZengMDPI AGInformation2078-24892021-09-0112938510.3390/info12090385Integrating Comprehensive Human Oversight in Drone Deployment: A Conceptual Framework Applied to the Case of Military Surveillance DronesIlse Verdiesen0Andrea Aler Tubella1Virginia Dignum2Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management, Delft University of Technology, 2600 AA Delft, The NetherlandsDepartment of Computing Science, Umeå University, 907 36 Umeå, SwedenFaculty of Technology, Policy and Management, Delft University of Technology, 2600 AA Delft, The NetherlandsAccountability is a value often mentioned in the debate on intelligent systems and their increased pervasiveness in our society. When focusing specifically on autonomous systems, a critical gap emerges: although there is much work on governance and attribution of accountability, there is a significant lack of methods for the operationalisation of accountability within the socio-technical layer of autonomous systems. In the case of autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles or drones—the critical question of how to maintain accountability as they undertake fully autonomous flights becomes increasingly important as their uses multiply in both the commercial and military fields. In this paper, we aim to fill the operationalisation gap by proposing a socio-technical framework to guarantee human oversight and accountability in drone deployments, showing its enforceability in the real case of military surveillance drones. By keeping a focus on accountability and human oversight as values, we align with the emphasis placed on human responsibility, while requiring a concretisation of what these principles mean for each specific application, connecting them with concrete socio-technical requirements. In addition, by constraining the framework to observable elements of pre- and post-deployment, we do not rely on assumptions made on the internal workings of the drone nor the technical fluency of the operator.https://www.mdpi.com/2078-2489/12/9/385comprehensive human oversightsurveillance dronesresponsible AIaccountabilityautonomous systems |
| spellingShingle | Ilse Verdiesen Andrea Aler Tubella Virginia Dignum Integrating Comprehensive Human Oversight in Drone Deployment: A Conceptual Framework Applied to the Case of Military Surveillance Drones Information comprehensive human oversight surveillance drones responsible AI accountability autonomous systems |
| title | Integrating Comprehensive Human Oversight in Drone Deployment: A Conceptual Framework Applied to the Case of Military Surveillance Drones |
| title_full | Integrating Comprehensive Human Oversight in Drone Deployment: A Conceptual Framework Applied to the Case of Military Surveillance Drones |
| title_fullStr | Integrating Comprehensive Human Oversight in Drone Deployment: A Conceptual Framework Applied to the Case of Military Surveillance Drones |
| title_full_unstemmed | Integrating Comprehensive Human Oversight in Drone Deployment: A Conceptual Framework Applied to the Case of Military Surveillance Drones |
| title_short | Integrating Comprehensive Human Oversight in Drone Deployment: A Conceptual Framework Applied to the Case of Military Surveillance Drones |
| title_sort | integrating comprehensive human oversight in drone deployment a conceptual framework applied to the case of military surveillance drones |
| topic | comprehensive human oversight surveillance drones responsible AI accountability autonomous systems |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2078-2489/12/9/385 |
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