Engineer A AI Design Substitution
P · Principle
Individual
http://proethica.org/ontology/case/7#Engineer_A_AI_Design_Substitution
Definition
Engineer A accepted AI-generated design documents after only a high-level review without outlining solution guidelines, critically challenging outputs, or verifying that the AI-generated design met independent professional standards, effectively substituting AI output for engineering judgment.
Properties
Instance of
TechnologySubstitutionProhibitionPrinciple
http://proethica.org/ontology/intermediate#TechnologySubstitutionProhibitionPrinciple
Applied to
AI-generated engineering design documents
Balancing with
AI Verification Competence Principle
Responsible Charge Integrity Principle
Concrete expression
Engineer A accepted AI-generated design documents after only a high-level review without outlining solution guidelines, critically challenging outputs, or verifying that the AI-generated design met independent professional standards, effectively substituting AI output for engineering judgment.
Confidence
0.91
Interpretation
The BER analogized responsible AI use to supervising an engineering intern: outputs must be outlined, challenged, and verified against independent professional standards before acceptance. Engineer A's high-level review fell short of this standard, constituting impermissible substitution.
Tension resolution
The prohibition on substitution was treated as absolute in this context: no efficiency or novelty justification could excuse accepting AI-generated design outputs without substantive independent evaluation.
Match Confidence
0.0
Matches Existing
false
Synthesis Literal
appliedTo
balancingWith
concreteExpression
confidence
interpretation
principleClass
tensionResolution
textReferences
Relationships
invokedBy
Agent Engineer A
Source Evidence
Text references
It is the [BER]'s position that technology has an important place in the practice of engineering, but it must never be a replacement of a substitute for engineering judgement.
Much like directing an engineering intern to solve a problem, responsible use of AI requires an engineer to outline solution guidelines and constraints. Recommendations from the program or intern should not be blindly accepted, they should be considered and challenged and the resulting outputs should be understood.
Only after the engineer in Responsible Charge has satisfied themselves that the proposed solution is in accordance with their own and professional standards should the design/report be accepted. These are steps that, in this case, Engineer A chose not to follow.
Source text
Much like directing an engineering intern to solve a problem, responsible use of AI requires an engineer to outline solution guidelines and constraints. Recommendations from the program or intern should not be blindly accepted, they should be considered and challenged and the resulting outputs should be understood.
TTL
@prefix case7: <http://proethica.org/ontology/case/7#> .
@prefix owl: <http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#> .
@prefix proeth: <http://proethica.org/ontology/intermediate#> .
@prefix proeth-core: <http://proethica.org/ontology/core#> .
@prefix proeth-prov: <http://proethica.org/provenance#> .
@prefix prov: <http://www.w3.org/ns/prov#> .
@prefix rdfs: <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#> .
@prefix skos: <http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#> .
@prefix xsd: <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#> .
case7:Engineer_A_AI_Design_Substitution a proeth:TechnologySubstitutionProhibitionPrinciple,
owl:NamedIndividual ;
rdfs:label "Engineer A AI Design Substitution" ;
proeth-core:invokedBy case7:Agent_Engineer_A ;
proeth:appliedTo "AI-generated engineering design documents" ;
proeth:balancingWith "AI Verification Competence Principle",
"Responsible Charge Integrity Principle" ;
proeth:conceptCategory "Principle" ;
proeth:concreteExpression "Engineer A accepted AI-generated design documents after only a high-level review without outlining solution guidelines, critically challenging outputs, or verifying that the AI-generated design met independent professional standards, effectively substituting AI output for engineering judgment." ;
proeth:confidence "0.91" ;
proeth:interpretation "The BER analogized responsible AI use to supervising an engineering intern: outputs must be outlined, challenged, and verified against independent professional standards before acceptance. Engineer A's high-level review fell short of this standard, constituting impermissible substitution." ;
proeth:invokedBy "Engineer A AI-Assisted Design" ;
proeth:principleClass "Technology Substitution Prohibition Principle" ;
proeth:tensionResolution "The prohibition on substitution was treated as absolute in this context: no efficiency or novelty justification could excuse accepting AI-generated design outputs without substantive independent evaluation." ;
proeth:textReferences "It is the [BER]'s position that technology has an important place in the practice of engineering, but it must never be a replacement of a substitute for engineering judgement.",
"Much like directing an engineering intern to solve a problem, responsible use of AI requires an engineer to outline solution guidelines and constraints. Recommendations from the program or intern should not be blindly accepted, they should be considered and challenged and the resulting outputs should be understood.",
"Only after the engineer in Responsible Charge has satisfied themselves that the proposed solution is in accordance with their own and professional standards should the design/report be accepted. These are steps that, in this case, Engineer A chose not to follow." ;
proeth-prov:discoveredInCase 7 ;
proeth-prov:discoveredInPass 2 ;
proeth-prov:discoveredInSection "discussion" ;
proeth-prov:firstDiscoveredAt "2026-06-03T14:08:23.434917+00:00"^^xsd:dateTime ;
proeth-prov:firstDiscoveredInCase 7 ;
proeth-prov:matchConfidence 0.0 ;
proeth-prov:matchesExisting false ;
proeth-prov:sourceText "Much like directing an engineering intern to solve a problem, responsible use of AI requires an engineer to outline solution guidelines and constraints. Recommendations from the program or intern should not be blindly accepted, they should be considered and challenged and the resulting outputs should be understood." ;
proeth-prov:synthesisLiteral "appliedTo",
"balancingWith",
"concreteExpression",
"confidence",
"interpretation",
"principleClass",
"tensionResolution",
"textReferences" ;
rdfs:comment "Engineer A accepted AI-generated design documents after only a high-level review without outlining solution guidelines, critically challenging outputs, or verifying that the AI-generated design met independent professional standards, effectively substituting AI output for engineering judgment." ;
skos:definition "Engineer A accepted AI-generated design documents after only a high-level review without outlining solution guidelines, critically challenging outputs, or verifying that the AI-generated design met independent professional standards, effectively substituting AI output for engineering judgment." ;
prov:generatedAtTime "2026-06-03T14:08:23.434917+00:00"^^xsd:dateTime ;
prov:wasAttributedTo "Case 7 Extraction",
"claude-sonnet-4-6" ;
prov:wasGeneratedBy "ProEthica Case 7 Extraction" .
Metadata
Extraction details
Discovered in case
7
Discovered in pass
2
Discovered in section
discussion
First discovered
2026-06-03T14:08:23.434917+00:00
First case
7
Generated
2026-06-03T14:08:23.434917+00:00
Attributed to
['Case 7 Extraction', 'claude-sonnet-4-6']
Generated by
ProEthica Case 7 Extraction