About EIT

The Research Group for Ethics in Information Technology (EIT) at Universität Hamburg is an interdisciplinary team of researchers focusing on ethical, legal, social, and political implications posed by rapidly developing information technologies and big data practices.

Some of the topics investigated by the Research Group are: ethical, epistemological, social, and political dimensions of big data, machine learning and artificial intelligence, surveillance and security, internet and information technology governance & regulation, and moral responsibility in and through computing.

To fully apprehend the societal realities and possibilities afforded by digital technologies as well as the challenges they pose, the Research Group combines ethical analysis with other perspectives from within and beyond philosophy, such as epistemology, philosophy of science, political science, technology assessment, and feminist theory.

Situated within the Department of Informatics, the Research Group goes beyond merely analysing technologies and evaluating their impacts; it also aims at contributing to the design and development of new information technologies through active collaboration with other research groups within the Department.

Furthermore, the Research Group offers undergraduate and graduate level courses at the department of informatics and other departments at Universität Hamburg. We also supervise Bachelor, Master, and PhD theses on topics related to our research interests.

Finally, the Research Group is also active at the interface between science, society, and politics by means of inter- and transdisciplinary research, knowledge transfer as well as the consultation of policy-makers. We regularly invite speakers for presentations which are open to the public.