Abstract: A new technical era with characters of big data as raw material and artificial intelligence as engine is unstoppable. Big data and artificial intelligence have brought human beings great benefit, meanwhile they also have brought problems such as personal privacy, data autocracy, and new type of intelligent life. This paper overviews the background, significance and present status of ethical researches on big data and artificial intelligence, especially focusing on the ethical challenges brought by them from the aspects of neutrality, timeliness, and guidance. Part 2 followed by this paper will introduce the boundary problem, privacy problem and responsibility problem, and sketches effective countermeasures and future open policy and technological problems.