Ethics as the foundation for 6G
The development of 6G is not just about faster networks and new applications. According to Jeroen van den Hoven, the next generation of digital infrastructure must be designed from the outset with societal values in mind. As chair of the Ethics Committee within the FNS program, he sees it as a crucial task to structurally link technology, ethics and public values.
Jeroen is a professor of ethics and technology at Delft University of Technology and advises, among others, the European Commission and the World Health Organisation on the ethical aspects of digital technology and AI. Within FNS, he focuses on a central question: how do we ensure that technological innovation delivers social progress without creating new unacceptable risks?
Ethics as an integral part of innovation
According to Jeroen, the FNS Ethics Committee is not a separate advisory group on the sidelines, but an essential part of responsible innovation within FNS. Precisely because 6G has a profound impact on societal developments and implications for safeguarding public values, he believes that ethical considerations must be part of the design and development process from the outset.
“We want to enjoy the benefits of the technology, but without the drawbacks,” he says. “That is the essence of responsible innovation.”
According to Jeroen, 6G is therefore not just about technological innovation, but also about social trust and public legitimacy. It is of the utmost importance to start addressing this as early as possible.
Jeroen emphasises that ethics must not be given a merely symbolic role within FNS. He warns against what is known as ‘ethics washing’: an ethics committee for the outside world, with no influence on technological choices. “It shouldn’t be the case that you only have an ethics group for when criticism arises,” he says. “Ethics must be interwoven with the design and the developments themselves. Furthermore, ethics should not be seen as a brake on innovation, but rather as a way to make technology more robust, socially acceptable and future-proof.”
“Don’t just ask yourself whether something is technically possible, but also what it will mean when an entire society is living with that technology.”
From abstract values to concrete technology
Jeroen explains that the main challenge lies in translating abstract social values into technical design choices. Concepts such as privacy, security, sustainability and transparency enjoy broad support, but only acquire practical significance in this context when engineers can put them into practice. “You have to translate something that is abstract, vague and important into something very concrete. Engineers work with requirements. So ultimately, you have to translate societal values into design requirements.”
He calls this approach ‘design for values’: designing technology based on public values. Within FNS, this approach takes shape through the Ethics Committee, in which experts from various disciplines collaborate, ranging from telecoms specialists to lawyers and experts in the fields of health, privacy and security.
In addition, a PhD research project has been launched that specifically examines the privacy and security aspects of 6G. According to Jeroen, this PhD candidate plays an important role now and in the coming years as a ‘translator’ between technological and ethical perspectives.
Use cases make ethics tangible
To make ethics specific, the Ethics Committee works with practical examples. It looks at applications such as traffic management systems, sensors in infrastructure and drones. According to the Committee, such applications can deliver societal benefits, but acceptance and acceptability must be addressed at an early stage in relation to relevant design choices. According to Jeroen, phase two of FNS is primarily about operationalising public values in practice. Whereas the first phase focused mainly on raising awareness and setting the agenda, it must now become clear how public values actually become part of design choices within 6G applications. Through tangible use cases, presentations and discussions within the consortium, the Ethics Committee also aims to take this approach ‘out into the field’. The aim is to ensure that societal values are not placed beside, but within the design process of 6G technology.
Jeroen cites the drone example as particularly illustrative. In previous projects, it was demonstrated step by step how societal and ethical requirements for a medical drone were actually implemented in the design. “If you walk around such a drone, you can explain and justify every feature in the light of moral, legal and societal considerations,” he says. “That’s because it has been established in advance which societal and ethical requirements are important and how they should be specified in the requirements.” According to him, nothing works better than a concrete example to show how ethics and technology come together.
Strategic autonomy is becoming increasingly important
Whereas early discussions surrounding FNS focused heavily on economic viability, there is now also increasing attention on strategic autonomy and technological independence. Europe wants to become less dependent on large foreign technology companies and gain more control over the digital infrastructure of the future. He refers to the idea of the ‘Eurostack’: a fully coherent and integrated European digital ecosystem encompassing everything from microelectronics, high-performance computing, telecoms infrastructure and cloud storage to software and AI services. “Europe must retain control over how this technology develops,” he says. According to Jeroen, that control often begins, remarkably enough, with ethics. Discussions about human rights, privacy and security often determine who ultimately has a say in technical standards.
AI and dependency as the biggest concerns
When asked about his biggest concerns, Jeroen cites two developments.
The first is the growing dependency on non-European technology companies and state actors. According to him, digital systems always implicitly carry a political and social vision.
“Technology is never neutral,” he states. “Companies and countries embed their ideas about society into the technology we use, and they in turn use that technology to perpetuate and propagate their vision."
He is also concerned about the increasing autonomy of AI systems within digital infrastructures. As networks become more complex, human control diminishes further.
“It’s increasingly about how many decisions you can leave to the system itself,” he says. “That constantly requires finding the right balance between autonomy and human responsibility.”
He therefore has one clear message for researchers and companies within FNS: consider the societal consequences and ethical implications of large-scale technology at an early stage.
