Values, Ethics and Innovation

The document advocates for a shift in how society views and develops technology, moving away from seeing it as a neutral tool or an inevitable force toward recognizing it as a socially constructed capability that embodies the values of its creators. It proposes a 'human-centred approach' based on three strategies: adopting a systems view, shaping the moral role of technologies, and engaging diverse stakeholders. To achieve 'transformative innovation,' the authors call for new tools (such as foresight and participatory mapping), cross-disciplinary skills in science and humanities, new collaborative partnerships, and agile institutions that prioritize societal well-being over narrow financial metrics.

• Current prevailing views of technology—either as neutral tools or as inevitable forces beyond human control—are insufficient for governing powerful emerging technologies like machine learning, biotechnologies, and neurotechnologies.
• Technologies are not value-neutral; they embody the values, biases, and interests of their creators, which in turn shape how users realize their identities and goals.
• A human-centred approach to innovation requires a 'co-development' mindset that recognizes the recursive influence between technology and society, focusing on the central question of how technologies can enable a meaningful future for humankind.
• The 'Collingridge dilemma' highlights the difficulty of governing technology: impacts are hard to predict when technologies are emerging, but once they are embedded in infrastructure, they are difficult to change.
• Transformative innovation can generate economic value by rebuilding trust through transparency, widening markets by improving general well-being, and creating surplus value through higher quality market participation.
• There is an urgent need for new cross-disciplinary educational curricula—such as a combination of philosophy, politics, and engineering—because traditional ethics courses in business and engineering often focus too narrowly on compliance rather than societal impact.
• Effective governance of the Fourth Industrial Revolution requires institutions to move from top-down, penalty-based models to agile, inclusive, and iterative frameworks that engage stakeholders at multiple inflection points of the development cycle.

APA

Philbeck, T., Davis, N., & Larsen, A. M. E. (2018). Values, Ethics and Innovation. World Economic Forum. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_WP_Values_Ethics_Innovation_2018.pdf

Chicago

Philbeck, Thomas, Nicholas Davis, and Anne Marie Engtoft Larsen. Values, Ethics and Innovation. World Economic Forum, 2018. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_WP_Values_Ethics_Innovation_2018.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Philbeck |first1=Thomas |last2=Davis |first2=Nicholas |last3=Larsen |first3=Anne Marie Engtoft |title=Values, Ethics and Innovation |publisher=World Economic Forum |date=August 2018 |url=http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_WP_Values_Ethics_Innovation_2018.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{philbeck2018values, author = {Philbeck, Thomas and Davis, Nicholas and Larsen, Anne Marie Engtoft}, title = {{Values, Ethics and Innovation}}, institution = {World Economic Forum}, year = {2018}, month = aug, url = {http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_WP_Values_Ethics_Innovation_2018.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }