ABSTRACT
Given that even conventional ICTs fail to fulfil user expectations as regards questions of ethics, 1 it is all the more necessary to take into account the ethical dimensions of software agents as they increasingly penetrate innovations across all types of application. Moreover, it becomes urgent to examine ethical issues when the very purpose of such agents is to interact with humans as well as with other agents, since software agents consistently act with their own intentions – regardless of whether they are opponents (for example, in e-commerce) or partners (for example, in e-therapy). The key point is that they try to persuade. Writers on the ethics of design have noted that from ancient rhetoric to modern advertising:
the power of persuasion introduces additional legal and ethical questions. (…) No simple list could empower agent designers to guide their agent development efforts ethically and legally. (Heckman and Wobbrock, 2000)
