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Digital Extended Reality

In short

Digital Extended Reality technologies combine advanced computing systems (hardware and software) that can change how people connect with each other and their surroundings and influence or manipulate human actions through interactions with virtual environments.

Key ethical concerns surround cybersecurity and how these technologies may impact human behavioural and social dynamics. For example, technology mimicking human responses may give rise to responses as though it were actually human, while developments in Extended Reality may lead to undue influence from ‘nudging’ techniques.

More about Digital Extended Reality

Digital Extended Reality could change how people connect with each other and their surroundings in physical and virtual settings.

We include two many technologies in this family: Extended Reality (XR), which relates to virtual and simulated experiences using digital technologies, and Natural Language Processing (NLP), which allows computer systems to process and analyse a vast quantity of human natural language information (e.g., voice, text, images) and generate text in natural or artificial languages. These two technologies can stand alone or be combined in certain devices. You can explore specific examples that fall in these categories below.

Potential ethical repercussions of such technologies include cognitive and physiological impacts as well as behavioural and social dynamics, such as influencing users’ behaviours, and monitoring and supervising people.

Ethical analysis

‘Ethics by design’ is at the core of TechEthos. It was necessary to identify the broad array of values and principles at stake in Digital Extended Reality, to be able to include them from the very beginning of the process of research and development. Based on our ethical analysis, we will propose how to enhance or adjust existing ethical codes, guidelines or frameworks.

XR and NLP are treated as self-sufficient, standalone technologies in the analysis below, but our in-depth reports also look at the ethical issues raised by their combination.

Legal analysis

While no international or EU law directly addresses or explicitly mentions Digital Extended Reality, many aspects are subject to international and EU law. Below, you can explore the legal frameworks and issues relevant to this technology family and read about the next steps in our legal analysis.

Societal analysis

This type of analysis is helping us bring on board the concerns of different groups of actors and look at technologies from different perspectives.

Our Recommendations

Explore the project recommendations to enhance the EU legal framework and the ethical governance of this technology family.

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