Embedding Ethics in Neurotechnology Industry – Lessons from the AI Sector

Neuroethics 2025
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This session critically examines how neuroethics can deeply engage with a rapidly growing neurotechnology industry by drawing insights from the AI ethics sector. Experts in embedded ethics, AI, and neurotechnology industry will jointly reflect on the resonances between ethical considerations in AI and neurotechnology, identify successes and challenges of embedded ethics, and highlight lessons that the neurotechnology industry can draw from AI ethics.

Speakers:

Agenda

  1. Introductory Remarks / 5 mins
  2. Framing the need for ethics integration in industry / 10 mins
  3. Practical ethics in AI and neurotechnology / 15 mins
  4. Applying the lessons from AI to neuroethics / 10 mins
  5. Open discussion / 20 mins

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Neuroethics 2025
Thursday, April 24, 2025
2:30-3:30pm CEST

Description

As the field of neurotechnology rapidly grows into a burgeoning industry that will impact patients, consumers, and society, the need for deep ethical engagement is imminent. Embedded ethics is a promising approach to this but one that faces novel challenges in an industry setting. Fortunately, neurotechnology is far from the first industry to face these challenges. This meeting’s theme highlights a timely convergence with an industry that can offer important insights into developing embedded ethics approaches: AI. In this session, we bring together experts in embedded ethics, AI, and neurotechnology industry to reflect on the deep resonances between the ethical considerations in these fields1,2 and highlight lessons that the neurotechnology industry can draw from the world of AI ethics.

The proposed session is a 60-minute facilitated discussion. It will begin with a brief introduction to the need for ethics embedding in neurotechnology and how AI ethics can offer valuable insights, then move into a facilitated discussion designed to draw out panelists’ experiences and expertise in embedded ethics, AI ethics, and neurotechnology ethics. We will first examine the need for ethics integration into industry and the timeliness of this effort, then illuminate some of the practical ethical considerations that appear in neurotechnology and AI industry settings, and finally reflect on lessons from AI ethics that can inform the trajectory of neurotechnology ethics in industry.

The panel includes a bioethicist in Germany who has worked and written on embedding ethics in the AI sector, the CEO of a leading neurotechnology company in the U.S. who has been proactive in interfacing with ethics, and a researcher at a major U.S.-based multinational technology company who has worked at the intersection of AI, neuroscience, and ethics. It will be moderated by a postdoctoral fellow with a background in both neurotechnology and neuroethics who is currently conducting embedded ethics research in the neurotechnology industry. These panelists represent industry and academic perspectives across neurotechnology and AI, bringing a rich array of expertise in AI, neurotechnology, and embedded ethics to bear on the central question of how to deeply embed ethics into the future of neurotechnology.

Resources

References

  • Berger, S. E. & Rossi, F. Addressing neuroethics issues in practice: Lessons learnt by tech companies in AI ethics. Neuron 110, 2052–2056 (2022).
  • Salles, A. & Farisco, M. Neuroethics and AI ethics: a proposal for collaboration. BMC Neurosci. 25, 41 (2024).

Keywords: Neurotechnology, Artificial Intelligence, Ethics Embedding, Industry-Academia Collaborations, Ethics in Industry, Brain-computer interface

Speakers

Sara Berger

IBM Research

Sara E. Berger is a Senior Research Scientist at IBM, IBM AI Ethics Board Focal Point, and the Director of the Notre Dame – IBM Tech Ethics Lab. She has a multidisciplinary background in cognitive neuroscience, machine learning, and bioethics, and her work focuses on ethical and sociotechnical issues at the intersection of neuroscience and AI. She has written about the application of lessons from AI ethics to neuroethics and has extensive experience conducting ethics research in an industry setting.

Juhi Farooqui

University of Pennsylvania

Juhi Farooqui is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Wexler Lab at the University of Pennsylvania. She has a PhD in Neural Computation from Carnegie Mellon University and is interested in the ethical development and dissemination of neurotechnologies. Her postdoctoral work, funded by the Dana Foundation, focuses on embedding ethics in the neurotechnology industry and co-creating ethics research with neurotechnology industry partners.

Stuart McLennan

Technical University of Munich

Stuart McLennan is Director of Research at the Institute for the History and Ethics of Medicine (IGEM) at the Technical University of Munich (TUM). His research focuses on ethical and regulatory issues related to learning health systems, particularly data science and AI in health care, patient safety and quality improvement, and clinical research. He is deeply involved in the development of embedded ethics as an approach for integrating ethics into the development of medical AI.

Jacob Robinson

Motif Neurotech

Jacob T. Robinson is a Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering and Bioengineering at Rice University, where he leads a lab that focuses on building smaller, less invasive devices for interfacing with the brain, and the founder and CEO of Motif Neurotech, a company developing implanted therapeutic neurotechnology for treating intractable mental health disorders. He has previously written about frameworks for integrating neuroethics into engineering practice.

Organizers

  • Juhi Farooqui
  • Anna Wexler
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