Relation to HLEG ALTAI

XR Code of Conduct
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Hi, I’ve looked at this Code of Conduct - nice work! It looks like another standalone document enumerating principles and then going (a little bit) into what these principles mean. In today’s world there’s a proliferation of principles and values for digital systems: why wouldn’t you explicitly refer to HLEG ALTAI principles, then add or subtract if necessary? This way you’d position your CoC as a subset of ALTAI adopted to XR, rather than yet-one-more CoC. A much better chance of adoption, I believe, if there’s a clear relation to the existing ones!

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That’s a good question about the HLEG ALTAI example. It may have been consulted in the early stages of the draft. Maybe @lene.hagen can share some insight on that?

I was part of the later drafting and iterating and I wasn’t personally aware of the HLEG ALTAI or its example. Having reviewed its principles, I see that it presents 4 principles and 7 requirements.

Principles:

  1. Respect for human autonomy
  2. Prevention of harm
  3. Fairness
  4. Explicability

Requirements:

  1. Human agency and oversight
  2. Technical robustness and safety
  3. Privacy and data governance
  4. Transparency
  5. Diversity, non-discrimination and fairness
  6. Societal and environmental wellbeing
  7. Accountability

Also it identifies a short list of “should be’s”:

  1. Lawful
  2. Ethical
  3. Robust

I recall that a great deal of discussion went into how many principles to have in the XR CoC, how to combine them and such. The goal was to have a few principles and then more articles, but we ultimately ended up in this draft with more principles than articles.

The XR CoC is written for the target audience of designers, developers, and deployers of XR applications and experience. The principles could certainly be combined into a small number of high level concepts, but I personally see the value in having a greater number of principles that are distinctive. This way, I feel that they are more recognizable and thought generating for the target audience. I feel the risk of principles being too high level diminishes their impact on practitioners.

The ALTAI requirements align with many of the principles and articles in the XR CoC, particularly transparency. I feel one difference is that ALTAI focuses on the AI system operation whereas the XR CoC focuses a bit more on the user experience and the impact of design decisions on it.

Still, I understand that your suggestion is about building on an already politically accepted framework. It would be valuable to understand better to what extent ALTAI has been adopted and incorporated into the decision making of companies that utilise AI systems. I understand it likely informed the creation of the AI Act, so one may infer that the objective of HLEG ALTAI was to inform policy, whereas the XR CoC aims (at least at this moment) to be voluntarily adopted by industry and practitioners.

Also worth noting: I see a 2024 publication of an ALTAI self-assessment tool. XR4HUMAN has also drafted an ethical self-assessment tool based on the XR CoC.

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Another set of principles worth comparing with those of this XR CoC are the ones identify by the Citizens’ Panel on Virutal Worlds.

That citizens research outlined “8 common citizen values and principles” for “desirable and fair European Virtual Worlds”:

  1. Freedom of Choice – Participation in virtual worlds should be voluntary, with no disadvantages for those who opt out.
  2. Sustainability – Virtual worlds should be environmentally friendly in their setup and use.
  3. Human Centered – Technology should serve users’ needs, rights, and expectations.
  4. Health – Both physical and mental health should be core considerations in virtual world development.
  5. Education & Literacy – Users should be equipped with the knowledge and skills to navigate virtual worlds.
  6. Safety & Security – Citizens must be protected from harm, including data theft and manipulation.
  7. Transparency – Regulations and data usage should be clear, protecting users’ data and well-being.
  8. Inclusion – Access to virtual worlds should be equitable, regardless of background or circumstances.

Considering again on the principle of transparency, I would say that the Citizens’ Panel’s concept of transparency is focused on data management rather than on user experience design, which is more the focus of the XR CoC. This highlights to me the different target audiences for these principles.