Humans are succumbing to the dangerous assumption that technology is capable of making intelligent moral and political decisions says tech ethicist Shannon Vallor.
Speaking ahead of her talk at The Federation in Manchester, Vallor shared with 老九品茶Cloud what it means to be ‘human’ in a tech-focussed world.
The internationally acclaimed author and academic is based in the heart of Silicon Valley in the department of Philosophy at Santa Clara University and is also a consulting AI ethicist supporting Google Cloud AI.
Vallor believes the consequences of continuing to use tech in the way we have been will start to seem increasingly unacceptable.
鈥淭he kinds of decisions which are appropriate to delegate to machines and humans will become increasingly more visible,鈥� she said. “There will also be increasingly more cases of injustice or unfairness as a result of the mindless uses of automation and AI.
鈥淚鈥檓 definitely not against the use of those things in very well thought-out contexts but the idea that machines can make the kinds of moral and political decisions that we鈥檙e responsible for making is an incredibly dangerous illusion.
“Unfortunately a lot of people right now are succumbing to that illusion, so we鈥檙e going to see some unfortunate consequences.”
Ideally, says Vallor, humanity will wise up before it pays the price of entrusting machines with too much responsibility, and it鈥檚 this theme which drives her work.
鈥淢y colleagues and I are trying to show that we鈥檝e already hit a wall we should鈥檝e seen coming, with respect to social media and political discourse, so let鈥檚 not do that again,鈥� she explained.
鈥淟et鈥檚 try and see the danger before we go off the cliff and take a better path this time.鈥�
There is still hope that this will happen, believes Vallor, especially in light of the recent 鈥榤oment of reckoning鈥� tech companies have faced following the聽political impact of scandals such as Cambridge Analytica.
鈥淚n the last 12 months tech companies have gone into a listening, and increasingly action, mode,鈥� she said.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e starting to develop initiatives around bringing ethics into product design, research and evaluation and that鈥檚 great to see.鈥�
While there鈥檚 still a lot to be done, changing how we measure success 鈥� both as companies and as consumers 鈥� is key, says Vallor.
鈥淲e need to focus more on the extent to which the tech is serving the public interest instead of looking at narrow metrics like user base growth and engagement,鈥� she said.
鈥淚nvestors will hopefully start paying attention too and holding companies accountable, and consumers can do same 鈥� we鈥檙e already starting to see a lot of pushback.鈥�
Employees are also recognising their power, as top tech talent is a prime resource in short supply, she says.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e starting to realise they don鈥檛 just want to work for a big company, they want to work for one they can be proud of and that if they want that to happen they may need to exert some pressure.鈥�
Consumers who may be on board with more ethical companies but don鈥檛 want to give up the fast shipping and low price points they鈥檙e used to also have to think about short term goals versus more sustainable ones.
鈥淲e know from an environmental perspective that some of our practices really aren鈥檛 compatible with sustainable industry,鈥� said Vallor.
鈥淚f you have a product that聽magnifies false beliefs or spreads harmful conspiracies then that鈥檚 not a sustainable product either.鈥�
Ultimately, ethics is something humans have to learn to be good at and, like most things we learn to be good at, can help us enjoy life in a different way 鈥� in this case, one with less Fake News and addictive technology.
鈥淓thics is something that brings us to that future 鈥� and that鈥檚 worth wanting,鈥� she concluded.