Oct. 5, 2020, 2:42 p.m.
Ethical Technologist Issue 6: Transparency, governance, and pornography
The Ethical Technologist
It’s time for the next issue of The Ethical Technologist! Autumn is upon us. The leaves are turning, jackets and sweaters are being pulled from storage, and tired jokes about pumpkin spice are being dusted off. It’s my favorite time of the year.
But it feels like this past week has been full of bad news in the tech world and beyond, doesn’t it? So for this week, I’ve tried to search out some good news, or at least items that are not obviously bad news. I have to admit, it’s not been easy. Some of this week’s features are ugly. So it goes. If you have read some encouraging news relating to ethics in tech, I’d love to hear more, and feature it in the next issue!
In this issue:
- Transparency in AI Algorithms
- Disruption is a Distraction
- Building Consensus in Open Source
- Algorithmic Sexism
- Using Analog Technologies to Improve a Digital World
As always, you can find back issues of The Ethical Technologist in the archives. And if you found this issue thought-provoking and informative, don’t forget to share!
[ 🗃 Transparency in AI Algorithms ]
Let’s open with some good news this week. Local governments are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence to help automate tasks otherwise too labor-intensive for tight budgets. Amsterdam, for example, is tracking complaints about over-full dumpsters and applying AI models to optimize garbage collection in the city. But many worry that this means local government will lose much of its transparency. Last week, in the name of transparency, the cities of Amsterdam and Helsinki launched registers aimed at explaining how the cities use AI, what data gets collected, and how that data is used. It’s still early days for these registries, but I believe they could become models for future efforts from governments and businesses who want to be open about how they use data about us.
- Amsterdam and Helsinki become first cities to launch AI registers explaining how they use algorithms
[ 🧫 Disruption Is a Distraction ]
Tech journalism keeps to a well-worn formula when talking about startups: The drama and excitement of a small scrappy startup toppling a dominant player, David versus Goliath. But the “disruption” narrative is not only often an inaccurate lens to think about startup growth, but relying on it as the only lens often serves to obscure deeper, more important issues. Journalists, for example, were so excited about how Theranos was going to disrupt the medical testing industry, they never thought to ask if the technology itself even worked. (Narrator: It didn’t.) Adrian Daub argues that the disruption lens has become a way to justify tech’s consolidation of power, and he asks us to reconsider the way we tell stories about startups.
[ 🦸 Building Consensus in Open Source ]
Open source software is organized into discrete projects, each run on its own terms. Because most projects are started by individual engineers, and because most engineers never receive training in managing people, most open source software projects are implicitly organized as dictatorships. The Benevolent Dictator for Life model (BDFL) is so common it’s become a trope among open source developers. And this governance model has time and again proved problematic in recent years. But the alternative—democratic consensus-building—is seen as slow and ineffective by most engineers. So the question remains: How does the open source community denormalize BDFLs and build a training network for more democratic governance?
[ 🔞 Algorithmic Sexism ]
Deepfakes—videos that are altered to make individuals appear to say or do things they didn’t actually say or do—are a growing source of concern for many tech observers. The most obvious cause for alarm is the erosion of democracy via fake news substantiated with faked video evidence. Perhaps more alarmingly, an underground collection of video hackers are churning out deepfake pornography, in which not only famous celebrities but (often unwilling) private individuals are digitally (and convincingly) edited into pornographic videos. It’s demeaning and humiliating to the people targeted, and it’s proving tenaciously difficult to eradicate. And such deepfaks are only getting easier, faster, and cheaper to produce thanks to a community of open source developers dedicated to improving the technology.
[ 🖋 Using Analog Technologies to Improve a Digital World ]
I rely on fountain pens and notebooks to organize my life. There’s something satisfyingly visceral about the feel of a fine nib on good paper. But it’s not just me. Research is increasingly showing how hand-writing notes and schedules helps our brains consolidate important information. Yet so many of us rely on digital calendars and automated tooling to help manage our work lives. How can we find the right balance between digital and analog in a world that wants very much to sell us apps and gadgets?
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And that’s it for Issue 6! Thanks once again to our amazing content editor, Amy Goodman-Wilson, for all her hard work getting this issue out the door.
And thank you for subscribing. If you enjoyed this issue, share with your friends! If you have an article that should be featured in an upcoming issue of The Ethical Technologist, let me know by either replying to this email (what, a newsletter you can reply to!?), or pinging me on Twitter.
Until next time,
yours,
Don Goodman-Wilson