Ethical Questions in NLP Research: The (Mis)-Use of Forensic Linguistics

TL;DR

The paper discusses ethical concerns and potential misuses of forensic linguistics methods in NLP research, emphasizing the need for ethical standards and scientific rigor to prevent legal and ethical breaches.

Contribution

It highlights the ethical issues and scientific limitations of applying forensic linguistics in NLP, urging for more responsible and ethically aware research practices.

Findings

Use of forensic linguistics in NLP often neglects scientific limitations.

Uncritical application can breach ethical standards and legal processes.

Raises awareness of ethical responsibilities in data-driven research.

Abstract

Ideas from forensic linguistics are now being used frequently in Natural Language Processing (NLP), using machine learning techniques. While the role of forensic linguistics was more benign earlier, it is now being used for purposes which are questionable. Certain methods from forensic linguistics are employed, without considering their scientific limitations and ethical concerns. While we take the specific case of forensic linguistics as an example of such trends in NLP and machine learning, the issue is a larger one and present in many other scientific and data-driven domains. We suggest that such trends indicate that some of the applied sciences are exceeding their legal and scientific briefs. We highlight how carelessly implemented practices are serving to short-circuit the due processes of law as well breach ethical codes.