In this day and age, technology is affecting people it never has before. Unmoderated sides of the internet allows hateful groups to reach others through the guise of anonymity, artificial intelligence is replacing human decision making in key areas, and the sensational ways in which companies use technology incur short term gains while corrupting entire populations. All these advances pose new and concerning ethical and moral questions we’ve never seen before. The decision to build technology with the benefit of society in mind may change from being the “right” thing to being the only way technologists, companies, and the people of the world can prevent self destruction. This social good revolution is on the horizon because companies like Uber and Lyft are becoming more competitive in the realm of total societal impact. Also, companies like Pinterest and LinkedIn are realizing where their algorithms fall short of serving the needs of their customers, while others like Google are hiring teams of ethicists and setting goals for themselves regarding their impact on the world. When technology companies and their engineers are aware of the unintended consequences of their new technology, they can build better products that make everyone better off and keep the company sustained in the long term. Mission-driven development is taking off because the future of the world is increasingly at stake. Making these … (need to add third point)
Outline
Technology matters a lot more than it used to - ethical decisions must be made
Historical sort of thing that AI is different
AI blackboxing is not a good thing
Lots of money in industry
What is tech for social good? Let’s strive for that
Tech industry is booming and has a lot of power
People are starting to take notice of bad potential
How these are still fundamentally human decisions
How are companies responding/why should they take responsibility
Using social impact to compete (lyft)
Shift in focus towards total societal impact
Leads into -> Ethical decisions with tech and awareness of consequences == social good
Social good is a necessary byproduct of competing in new industry (even if we don’t focus on it)
Baby steps - pinterest, linkedin - how specific decisions and careful planning mean better products
Companies fail in the long-term if they aren’t mission-driven
Mission is now towards social good (didn’t used to be)
Google’s mission is
Amazon’s mission/startup missions are not
Serving customers is what companies do
The way to make better decisions is with more diversity, iteration, collaboration, thinking, focusing on impact, ect.
Blueprint club - focusing on impact, partnering with correct people, scalability
Everyone has a unique idea about what social good is and how to make an impact
Since ppl care about tech for social good, they want to work for companies that care too
The best minds are going to flock to the companies that care
Innovation comes from collaboration/argumentative theory
People have bias for their own ideas - this needs to be stopped.
Society comes up with the idea about what social good is.