Ethics is everywhere. Ethics is nowhere...
A very brief reflection on the 'ethics of AI' from Collision, a 40,000 person tech conference in Toronto, Canada
I’ve just returned home from Toronto where I spent a week with my colleagues from TELUS’ Data & Trust Office (DTO). Amongst other things, we spent three full days at Collision Conference. The event was huge, vibrant and well put together. I’m grateful for the time we spent together and the time we enjoyed during the conference itself.
But this isn’t an analysis of the organisers event management skills (I’m grossly under qualified to do such a thing). Rather, I’d like to briefly explore some of the value tensions that I picked up on.
Before doing so, let me bring you back to a time-boxed three part series I wrote exploring the Acceleration AI Ethics position (Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3). I bring this up because I am not agnostic. I am not merely exploring value tensions for shits and gigs. I’m here trying to find practical ways to contribute to trustworthy technology that helps make our shared future not just liveable, but loveable. I’d like to envisage a world where more people than ever before biopsychosocially thrive.
In Acceleration AI Ethics, Brusseau calls attention to ‘3 responses to generative AI’.
On the far left we have the slow down, pause and stop camp. Although there’s a lot of noise here, it’s little more than that. No one is actually slowing down (there are way too many forces discouraging this).
To the far right we have the fairly radical tech optimists. Much could be said about their philosophy, but I’ll leave it at that for now.
Given that the far left is rhetoric and the far right is, I will argue, morally unacceptable (this can and will be debated), the middle ground here feels very enticing.
How we ‘do’ Acceleration AI Ethics well is an outstanding question. This is something I’m working with an ecosystem of collaborators on right now.
I share this briefly before continuing in the hope that it sets the stage.
Back to the event.
There was (a somewhat implicit) tension between the far left and right (with very few folks aware of the Brusseau proposal). If I were a betting fella, I’d put money on most of the momentum being to the right of this spectrum. A highlight of this came in one of the sessions where a fairly prominent character suggested something along the lines of (I do not quote verbatim), “No one’s really thinking about the ethics of Generative AI”.
A more accurate statement might have been, “I’m not really thinking about the ethics of Generative AI”. But that’s not what we got.
So what do I make of approximately 40,000 folks coming together, with a disproportionate focus on AI and specifically Generative AI?
Well, there were very few deep moral discussions.
I was honestly surprised. But… I do question whether this is due to me being in my little bubble (highly likely).
I try hard to break free of this. I get out into the world to expose myself. But, I still grapple with the fact that something so consequential was barely mentioned.
What do you think? Would you expect something different? How nuanced are the discussions you are having within your workplace?
Before wrapping up, I want to be clear that I’m not criticising the organisers here (as detailed briefly in the opening, it was a super well organised event). What I’m attempting to do is offer up a very brief summary of the direction of discussions (both those on stage and off it) on this specific topic, relative to my expectations.
Over the coming weeks I’ll write more about the contribution we made at the DTO, including the practical / participatory masterclass we ran on Impact Scanning.
For now, its worth keeping in mind that, although one’s LinkedIn feed (mine included) might prominently feature ‘ethics’, the broader system within which we operate still seems to have little time for this.
So please keep working. Do what you can to integrate and embed ethics into organisational workflows. Find ways to make doing what is good and right (morally), the thing that folks value and act towards.
Sending plenty of good vibes your way.