Ethics in Engineering and the Role of Responsible Technology

The idea of writing an Editorial on Responsible Technologies sprung from the plenary lecture that I gave at the at The First International Conference on Energy and AI in Tianjin. It was January 2020 and it was only a few weeks before a major shock hit the World: nobody could predict the approach of a pandemic that would affect the life of every single person in the world. Has the pandemic changed what I wanted to say in my Editorial? Probably so. Undoubtedly the pandemic has reinforced the relevance of technology. We all are living unprecedented times and we all share similar challenges: never as before globalisation has been affected and, at the same time, has been strengthen. Those as me, working from home, are likely spending a good amount of your time attending online meetings. Even those who don't work from home, are likely experiencing platforms as Zoom, Teams, Skype, as new ways of communicating with friends and family. The latest figures show that zoom is handling over 200 million users daily. This is only one example. Robotics, health screening, logistics are only a few, limited examples of how technology is affective our everyday lives. And, whilst I recognise that my work today would not be possible without the current development of technology, I cannot neglect considering the high importance of some unwanted consequences of technology.