Ethics committees ‘struggling to deal with’ AI research

Teaching ethics to computer science students, I always stress the need to watch out for the 'unintended consequences' in what we do. When we touch on research ethics, as well as the rather biomedical approach, need for anonymity and concern not to waste research subjects' time that ethics panels normally consider, we also consider "Will this research bring the university into disrepute?" and "Should we be doing this at all?" All final year projects are given an ethical once over, and those students wishing to involve other people - normally for knowledge elicitation or user testing - are required to seek formal ethical approval for the studies they propose to do. They moan a bit, but it's a useful exercise in inculcating the need to consider the ethics of anything that you do, particularly considering how ubiquitous computers are these days!