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Video and slides from my keynote at The Economist Innovation Forum 2017 in Berlin: Technology, Business, Digital Ethics (updated)
Here is the deck, below (PDF 20MB), More about the ...
A leading Silicon Valley engineer explains why every tech worker needs a humanities education (the power of philosophy)
“It worries me that so many of the builders of technology today are people who haven’t spent time thinking about these larger questions.” Ruefully—and with some embarrassment at my younger self’s condescending attitude toward the humanities—I now wish that I had strived for a proper liberal arts education. That I’d learned how to think critically about the world we live in and how to engage with it. That I’d absorbed lessons about how to identify and interrogate privilege, power structures, structural inequality, and injustice. That I’d had opportunities to debate my peers and develop informed opinions on philosophy and morality. And even more than all of that, I wish I’d even realized that these were worthwhile thoughts to fill my mind with—that all of my engineering work would be contextualized by such subjects.”
A leading Silicon Valley engineer explains why every tech worker needs a humanities education
https://qz.com/1016900/tracy-chou-leading-silicon-valley-engineer-explains-why-every-tech-worker-needs-a-humanities-education/
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A leading Silicon Valley engineer explains why every tech worker needs a humanities education
https://qz.com/1016900/tracy-chou-leading-silicon-valley-engineer-explains-why-every-tech-worker-needs-a-humanities-education/
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29
Jun 2017
The Guardian view on the EU’s Google judgment: firm and fair – made me think!
“The breathtaking fine of €2.4bn that the European commission has imposed on Google for exploiting its virtual monopoly of search is shocking and welcome. It shows that there is at least one polity that is prepared to stand up to the giant tech companies and try to bring them under the rule of the law. The individual countries of Europe are not large enough: Denmark, which has just announced the rather gimmicky appointment of an “ambassador to Silicon Valley”, has a GDP only about two-thirds the size of Facebook’s business. But the EU is big enough and strong enough to act. Further judgments and no doubt further fines are expected in two other cases where Google is accused of steering the market towards its own advertising businesses rather than those of its competitors.
The technology of the mobile internet has been a huge blessing for the world. But where it is not in the hands of undemocratic governments, it is controlled today by multinational advertising companies, which is the business that makes both Google and Facebook their almost incredible profits. However benign their intentions, the sheer size and reach of these companies makes them dangerous. This judgment represents one of the few serious attempts to manage these monopolies. It’s a welcome start.”
The Guardian view on the EU’s Google judgment: firm and fair | Editorial
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jun/27/guardian-view-eu-google-judgment-fair-fine
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29
Jun 2017
The Guardian view on the EU’s Google judgement (part 1)
“The breathtaking fine of €2.4bn that the European commission has imposed on Google for exploiting its virtual monopoly of search is shocking and welcome. It shows that there is at least one polity that is prepared to stand up to the giant tech companies and try to bring them under the rule of the law. The individual countries of Europe are not large enough: Denmark, which has just announced the rather gimmicky appointment of an “ambassador to Silicon Valley”, has a GDP only about two-thirds the size of Facebook’s business. But the EU is big enough and strong enough to act. Further judgments and no doubt further fines are expected in two other cases where Google is accused of steering the market towards its own advertising businesses rather than those of its competitors.
The technology of the mobile internet has been a huge blessing for the world. But where it is not in the hands of undemocratic governments, it is controlled today by multinational advertising companies, which is the business that makes both Google and Facebook their almost incredible profits. However benign their intentions, the sheer size and reach of these companies makes them dangerous. This judgment represents one of the few serious attempts to manage these monopolies. It’s a welcome start.”
The Guardian view on the EU’s Google judgment: firm and fair | Editorial
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jun/27/guardian-view-eu-google-judgment-fair-fine
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29
Jun 2017
Be Aware, Be Very Aware (Tristan Harris Podcast)
“we should acknowledge that the psychology of our minds work in specific, predictable and persuadable ways with “big holes waiting for things to pop in.” This presents a kind of existential problem because all of us are trapped inside the same psychological architecture and vulnerable to the techniques of persuasion.
“… persuasion is kind of like that. There is something that can subvert my architecture. I can’t close the holes that are in my brain, they are just there for someone to exploit. The best I can do is to become aware of some of them, but then I don’t want to walk around the world being just vigilant all the time of all the ways my buttons are being pressed.”
Tristan Harris says there’s a whole industry dedicated to this “dark art form” that people are not aware of. Consider, for example, that many people, when asked about the rise of big data, are not really all that alarmed that their personal data is out there. The familiar response is: “I’ve got nothing to hide.” But if they realized that this data is used to feed the attention economy and the underlying methods of persuasion that come with it they might be more concerned. What if this dedicated group of engineers develops a type of artificial intelligence that literally knows how to persuade you to do anything?”
Be Aware, Be Very Aware – Slaw
https://www.slaw.ca/2017/06/26/be-aware-be-very-aware/
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“… persuasion is kind of like that. There is something that can subvert my architecture. I can’t close the holes that are in my brain, they are just there for someone to exploit. The best I can do is to become aware of some of them, but then I don’t want to walk around the world being just vigilant all the time of all the ways my buttons are being pressed.”
Tristan Harris says there’s a whole industry dedicated to this “dark art form” that people are not aware of. Consider, for example, that many people, when asked about the rise of big data, are not really all that alarmed that their personal data is out there. The familiar response is: “I’ve got nothing to hide.” But if they realized that this data is used to feed the attention economy and the underlying methods of persuasion that come with it they might be more concerned. What if this dedicated group of engineers develops a type of artificial intelligence that literally knows how to persuade you to do anything?”
Be Aware, Be Very Aware – Slaw
https://www.slaw.ca/2017/06/26/be-aware-be-very-aware/
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27
Jun 2017
Meet Amazon’s New Echo Show: Alexa Is Watching
“It has this wild new feature called Drop In. Drop In lets you give people permission to automatically connect with your device. Here’s how it works. Let’s say my father has activated Drop In for me on his Echo Show. All I have to do is say, “Alexa, drop in on Dad.” It then turns on the microphone and camera on my father’s device and starts broadcasting that to me. For the several seconds of the call, my father’s video screen would appear fogged over. But then there he’ll be. And to be clear: This happens even if he doesn’t answer. Unless he declines the call, audibly or by tapping on the screen, it goes through. It just starts. Hello, you look nice today.
Honestly, I haven’t figured out what to think about this yet. But it’s here.”
Meet Amazon’s New Echo Show: Alexa Is Watching
https://www.buzzfeed.com/mathonan/meet-amazons-new-echo-show-alexa-is-watching
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Honestly, I haven’t figured out what to think about this yet. But it’s here.”
Meet Amazon’s New Echo Show: Alexa Is Watching
https://www.buzzfeed.com/mathonan/meet-amazons-new-echo-show-alexa-is-watching
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27
Jun 2017
The Real Threat of Artificial Intelligence – 5* read by Kai-Fu Lee
“One way or another, we are going to have to start thinking about how to minimize the looming A.I.-fueled gap between the haves and the have-nots, both within and between nations. Or to put the matter more optimistically: A.I. is presenting us with an opportunity to rethink economic inequality on a global scale. These challenges are too far-ranging in their effects for any nation to isolate itself from the rest of the world.
Kai-Fu Lee is the chairman and chief executive of Sinovation Ventures, a venture capital firm, and the president of its Artificial Intelligence Institute.”
Opinion | The Real Threat of Artificial Intelligence
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/24/opinion/sunday/artificial-intelligence-economic-inequality.html
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Kai-Fu Lee is the chairman and chief executive of Sinovation Ventures, a venture capital firm, and the president of its Artificial Intelligence Institute.”
Opinion | The Real Threat of Artificial Intelligence
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/24/opinion/sunday/artificial-intelligence-economic-inequality.html
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25
Jun 2017
Inequality boosted by AI – must read links via Azeem Azhar
“Economic growth has gone hand in hand with rising inequality for more than 9,000 years. Inequalities have only narrowed through war or plague. History offers very little comfort to those in search of peaceful leveling. Is there one? (See also Piketty's 2014 essay, a global, progressive wealth tax is the best solution to spiraling inequality.)
🗜️ The real threat of AI. Kai-Fu Lee: "most of the money being made from artificial intelligence will go to the United States and China. A.I. is an industry in which strength begets strength … [other nations] will essentially become [those] country’s economic dependent, taking in welfare subsidies in exchange for letting the “parent” nation’s A.I. companies continue to profit. A.I. is presenting us with an opportunity to rethink economic inequality on a global scale.””
🔮 Uber and leadership; emotions at work; Apple's secrecy; quantum computing; McJobs, and electric planes ++ #119
https://mailchi.mp/exponentialview/ev119?e=19e1d53fe6
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🗜️ The real threat of AI. Kai-Fu Lee: "most of the money being made from artificial intelligence will go to the United States and China. A.I. is an industry in which strength begets strength … [other nations] will essentially become [those] country’s economic dependent, taking in welfare subsidies in exchange for letting the “parent” nation’s A.I. companies continue to profit. A.I. is presenting us with an opportunity to rethink economic inequality on a global scale.””
🔮 Uber and leadership; emotions at work; Apple's secrecy; quantum computing; McJobs, and electric planes ++ #119
https://mailchi.mp/exponentialview/ev119?e=19e1d53fe6
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25
Jun 2017
Is it unethical to design robots to resemble humans? Great story on anthropomorphization
“And so the more we humanize chatbots, virtual assistants, and machines, the more we in turn display human emotions toward them. This is the process of anthropomorphism, whereby inanimate objects are attributed with human emotions, traits, and intentions. When something appears alive, it is in our nature to view it through a human lens. Now that many AIs and conversational bots have the illusion of being self-aware, they therefore trigger emotional responses in their users as if they were human. If the despised printer in Office Space had resembled a human (or a living animal, for that matter), our feelings toward both the object and the violent perpetrators would be altered. That’s why many people cringe when they see Boston Dynamics’ robotic dog getting kicked.”
Is it unethical to design robots to resemble humans?
https://qz.com/1010828/is-it-unethical-to-design-robots-to-resemble-humans/
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Is it unethical to design robots to resemble humans?
https://qz.com/1010828/is-it-unethical-to-design-robots-to-resemble-humans/
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23
Jun 2017
Technology, Humanity, and the Future of HR: my deck from today’s keynote (HR Summit Milano)
Read more about the event here HR Summit Milano Technology ...
22
Jun 2017
The big lesson from Amazon and Whole Foods: Disruptive competition comes out of nowhere – Vivek Wadhwa
“Note the march of Amazon. First it was bookstores, publishing and distribution; then cleaning supplies, electronics and assorted home goods. Now Amazon is set to dominate all forms of retail as well as cloud services, electronic gadgetry and small-business lending. And its proposed acquisition of Whole Foods sees Amazon literally breaking the barriers between the digital and physical realms.
This is the type of disruption we will see in almost every industry over the next decade, as technologies advance and converge and turn the incumbents into toast. We have experienced the advances in our computing devices, with smartphones having greater computing power than yesterday’s supercomputers. Now, every technology with a computing base is advancing on an exponential curve — including sensors, artificial intelligence, robotics, synthetic biology and 3-D printing. And when technologies converge, they allow industries to encroach on one another.”
The big lesson from Amazon and Whole Foods: Disruptive competition comes out of nowhere - Vivek Wadhwa
https://wadhwa.com/2017/06/21/big-lesson-amazon-whole-foods-disruptive-competition-comes-nowhere/
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This is the type of disruption we will see in almost every industry over the next decade, as technologies advance and converge and turn the incumbents into toast. We have experienced the advances in our computing devices, with smartphones having greater computing power than yesterday’s supercomputers. Now, every technology with a computing base is advancing on an exponential curve — including sensors, artificial intelligence, robotics, synthetic biology and 3-D printing. And when technologies converge, they allow industries to encroach on one another.”
The big lesson from Amazon and Whole Foods: Disruptive competition comes out of nowhere - Vivek Wadhwa
https://wadhwa.com/2017/06/21/big-lesson-amazon-whole-foods-disruptive-competition-comes-nowhere/
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22
Jun 2017
Carmageddon is Coming – Future Crunch – great read via Medium
“An overlapping confluence of three different technological waves — the smartphone, the electric battery and artificial intelligence — have created the conditions for a technological disruption so profound it’s going to change almost everything about the way we move in modern society.”
Carmageddon is Coming – Future Crunch – Medium
https://medium.com/future-crunch/carmageddon-is-coming-899c0f05a2a
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Carmageddon is Coming – Future Crunch – Medium
https://medium.com/future-crunch/carmageddon-is-coming-899c0f05a2a
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19
Jun 2017
“Google, not GCHQ, is the truly chilling spy network” says John Naughton (The Guardian)
“one of the spooks with whom I discussed Snowden’s revelations waxed indignant about our coverage of the story. What bugged him (pardon the pun) was the unfairness of having state agencies pilloried, while firms such as Google and Facebook, which, in his opinion, conducted much more intensive surveillance than the NSA or GCHQ, got off scot free. His argument was that he and his colleagues were at least subject to some degree of democratic oversight, but the companies, whose business model is essentially “surveillance capitalism”, were entirely unregulated.
He was right. “Surveillance”, as the security expert Bruce Schneier has observed, is the business model of the internet and that is true of both the public and private sectors. Given how central the network has become to our lives, that means our societies have embarked on the greatest uncontrolled experiment in history. Without really thinking about it, we have subjected ourselves to relentless, intrusive, comprehensive surveillance of all our activities and much of our most intimate actions and thoughts. And we have no idea what the long-term implications of this will be for our societies – or for us"
Google, not GCHQ, is the truly chilling spy network | John Naughton
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jun/18/google-not-gchq--truly-chilling-spy-network
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He was right. “Surveillance”, as the security expert Bruce Schneier has observed, is the business model of the internet and that is true of both the public and private sectors. Given how central the network has become to our lives, that means our societies have embarked on the greatest uncontrolled experiment in history. Without really thinking about it, we have subjected ourselves to relentless, intrusive, comprehensive surveillance of all our activities and much of our most intimate actions and thoughts. And we have no idea what the long-term implications of this will be for our societies – or for us"
Google, not GCHQ, is the truly chilling spy network | John Naughton
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jun/18/google-not-gchq--truly-chilling-spy-network
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19
Jun 2017
Why you should manage your energy, not your time (via the BBC)
“In the absence of clear indicators of what it means to be productive and valuable in their jobs, many workers turn back toward an industrial indicator of productivity: doing lots of stuff in a visible manner,” says Newport.”
Why you should manage your energy, not your time
https://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20170612-why-you-should-manage-your-energy-not-your-time
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Why you should manage your energy, not your time
https://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20170612-why-you-should-manage-your-energy-not-your-time
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17
Jun 2017
The Amazon-Walmart Showdown That Explains the Modern Economy / must read via NYT
“Each one is trying to become more like the other — Walmart by investing heavily in its technology, Amazon by opening physical bookstores and now buying physical supermarkets. But this is more than a battle between two business titans. Their rivalry sheds light on the shifting economics of nearly every major industry, replete with winner-take-all effects and huge advantages that accrue to the biggest and best-run organizations, to the detriment of upstarts and second-fiddle players.
That in turn has been a boon for consumers but also has more worrying implications for jobs, wages and inequality.”
The Amazon-Walmart Showdown That Explains the Modern Economy
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/16/upshot/the-amazon-walmart-showdown-that-explains-the-modern-economy.html
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That in turn has been a boon for consumers but also has more worrying implications for jobs, wages and inequality.”
The Amazon-Walmart Showdown That Explains the Modern Economy
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/16/upshot/the-amazon-walmart-showdown-that-explains-the-modern-economy.html
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16
Jun 2017
Ethical Innovation Means Giving Consumers a Say | WIRED
“Increasingly, the people and companies with the technological or scientific ability to create new products or innovations are de facto making policy decisions that affect human safety and society. But these decisions are often based on the creator’s intent for the product, and they don't always take into account its potential risks and unforeseen uses. What if gene-editing is diverted for terrorist ends? What if human-pig chimeras mate? What if citizens prefer to see birds rather than flying cars when they look out a window? (Apparently, this is a real risk. Uber plans to offer flight-hailing apps by 2020.) What if Echo Look leads to mental health issues for teenagers? Who bears responsibility for the consequences?”
Ethical Innovation Means Giving Consumers a Say | WIRED
https://www.wired.com/story/innovation-ethically/
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Ethical Innovation Means Giving Consumers a Say | WIRED
https://www.wired.com/story/innovation-ethically/
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