James Kitching, Computer Weekly; Ethics and tech – a double-edged sword
"Big corporations can no longer afford to ignore ethics
in their decision-making. Customers expect a higher level of social
capital from the companies they deal with and this can have a big effect
on whether those companies succeed or fail.
This is not a new conundrum specific to tech – remember the UK
hearings relating to tax avoidance, which included the likes of
Starbucks as well as Google. What accountants were advising their
clients wasn’t illegal. The creative schemes they came up with were
allowed under UK law – but that didn’t matter. What mattered was that
the way they were dealing with tax was seen by the public and the media
as immoral and unethical.
Organisations must think beyond the black-and-white letter of the
law. In the current climate, this means saying: “Yes, this is legal, but
I don’t necessarily think it is going to be viewed as socially
acceptable.”
Gone are the days when the excuse “but it is legal” will wash with the media, the government and the public at large."
Issues and developments related to ethics, information, and technologies, examined in the ethics and intellectual property graduate courses I teach at the University of Pittsburgh School of Computing and Information. My Bloomsbury book "Ethics, Information, and Technology" will be published in Summer 2025. Kip Currier, PhD, JD
Showing posts with label technology companies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label technology companies. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 23, 2018
Saturday, March 3, 2018
Who needs ethics anyway? – Chips with Everything podcast; Guardian, March 2, 2018
[Podcast] Presented by Jordan Erica Webber and produced by Danielle Stephens, Guardian;
Who needs ethics anyway? – Chips with Everything podcast
"Technology companies seem to have a bad reputation at the moment. Whether through honest mistakes or more intentional oversights, the likes of Apple, Facebook, Google and Twitter have created distrust among consumers.
But as technology develops, and as we hand over more control to artificial intelligence and machines, it becomes difficult for developers to foresee the negative consequences or side-effects that might arise.
In October 2017, the AI company DeepMind, a subsidiary of Google, created an ethics group made up of employees and external experts called DeepMind Ethics & Society.
But are these groups any more than a PR strategy? And how can we train technology students to preempt an ethical disaster before they enter the workforce?
To discuss these issues, Jordan Erica Webber is joined by Dr Mariarosaria Taddeoof the Oxford Internet Institute, Prof Laura Norén of NYU and student Kandrea Wade."
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