Ethics and Frontier Technology
Just this week I got to meet and spend time with some of the brilliant high school aged scholars from the Knowledge Society when they visited us at our NYC office from Toronto. Many inspiring and fascinating topics were explored, but I want to dig into the idea of building an ethical framework as an entrepreneur, researcher, builder and innovator. The question is: what ethical framework do you call upon in your work? The scholars were thoughtful in their answers, and volleyed back to us: what can we do to learn to be more ethical? This question has stuck with me.
Tech Ethicist. I recently went to the Northside Festival where there was a panel on ethics called ”Imagining unintended consequences: bringing ethics to the future of work.” This panel combined a tech ethicist and other experts and privacy advocates in a great conversation. I had never heard of a tech ethicist, but it seems to make sense given that hyper-pace of innovation. It was a good conversation focused on headlines, like how to code for self-driving cars, data privacy concerns, and even diversity. What struck me was how brass tacks the conversation was. The bigger questions (Yuval Noah Harari is an amazing resource on these big questions) loomed large, but were mostly left alone in favor of current events. Given near and long range issues, this type of role seems critical for your project team. If you don't have a tech ethicist on staff (personally I think every company needs a whole slew of them) then surely there are consultants who can help, and if that isn’t possible, try to designate a person or preferably council of people to champion the thorny, ethical questions before, during and after your launch.
Corporate & Institutional Champions. For people who are on the frontier, what they need is a framework and playbook on how to approach their work ethically. If you google ethics and technology you’ll get a slew of lists of guiding principles from corporations and research institutions. There are essays from tech ethicists, think pieces from various print and web publications. Obviously look into these and find sources which speak to you and your area of focus. And also think practically about it. Should you use your talents on building irresistible social media apps for kids with that big name firm that will look ah-mazing on your resume? I think we have something to learn from ethical companies. There are B Corps, companies that use the power of business to solve social and environmental problems. And even outside of that line there are many organizations explicitly trying to make sure technology helps people. Mick Ebeling’s Not Impossible Labs grew from the desire to use technology to help people by innovating, to solve challenges that others won’t tackle because it hasn’t been done before. And then you have amazing accelerators like the MIT Inclusive Innovation Challenge. I have been one of a group of judges (they use an inclusive “crowdsourcing” model after you go through a bit of training on how to evaluate applications) for the past 2 years. This program awards over one million dollars to global entrepreneurs using technology to drive economic opportunity for workers. Find these champions and connect and support their efforts. Study up and learn from their values.
Diversity for ethical results. And lastly, the absolute best way to consider blind spots and unintended consequences if you're heads down, moving quickly in your work, is to surround yourself with a diverse "board of directors" (or informal trusted advisors). This means you want to have minorities, different ages, different cultures, different economic backgrounds, even professions. An artist who doesn't understand the technicalities of your work can uncover a point of view you otherwise might not consider. Many times people focus on surrounding themselves with people who agree with their vision or want to profit from their ideas through investment. This is great for obvious reasons, but can leave ethics as an afterthought. How much better would your work be (results, society) if you also had great thinkers who had experience and a much wider focus? Be intentional to seek out difference and breadth of experience. And then work really hard to create a space where people actually share their ideas and questions candidly. Build psychological safety with the group of people you assemble. It's not useful to have an amazing group of people who are polite and quiet about concerns. Make it a part of your culture to ask the big questions and think about short and long range implications.
Granted, I'm an armchair ethicist, but this type of thinking hugely excites me. Tap into your passion for doing something for the greater good, and make time regularly to learn from ethicists who are actively asking the big questions. Follow and pay attention to what ethical companies and institutions are doing and taking stands on. Pursue having a diverse network of people, and then continue to have big and small conversations about what our future can look like, and how we can invent and innovate to create a force for good, while thinking about bigger implications to consider. That's all for now. Shoot me a line if you want to talk ethics. I'm probably not the deepest person, but my Quaker education coupled with my unconventional brain gives me a unique view which I'm more than happy to share!
