The Dignity Lens: Advancing Human-Centred Protective and Proactive Algorithmic Responsibility

Practically exercising responsibility when developing algorithms is a non-trivial activity. The plethora of perspectives on responsible AI often leaves practitioners overwhelmed and confused about how to start and how to ensure efforts are embedded in ongoing practice, not just one-off activities. Further, leaders who are concerned about the role of human-centred values, like dignity, are often disappointed about a lack of guidance to practically make this prioritisation a reality in technology development. This paper presents a framework—the Dignity Lens—for reflecting on how technologies developed and/or implemented impact (human) relationships. The Dignity Lens is the outcome of multi-year design science research undertaken in three organisational contexts. In this article, we describe the journey of the Dignity Lens from inception to now and an in-depth application of the Dignity Lens in the most recent organisational context within which it was developed. We illustrate how this organisation has begun to embed the Dignity Lens into their everyday practices and the benefits of doing so. We argue that the Dignity Lens offers a unique way for practitioners to exercise protective and proactive responsibility and tangibly engage with concepts of dignity while building algorithms, offering space for constructive reflection, innovation and accountability in line with human-centred commitments.