Digital Ethics

I am a news junkie, and these days, that is not necessarily a good thing.  Everywhere you turn it, it feels people are arguing over something...especially politics and religion.  In my own community, where it is local election season, people are arguing over mass development vs. controlled development and whether roads should be expanded from four lanes to six.  There is passion on both sides and the arguments can get nasty.

It is impossible to escape debate. It appears on social media, on TV, in our schools and in our local town halls.  In many ways, the debate is healthy, and it is obviously critical to our system of government.  But it can also be incredible sharp, personal and vindictive.  "There are two sides to every story" as we all know, and those "sides" are usually based on an individual's world view.  World views are formed early and they entrench all of us into our perspectives on life.  They are the basis from which we all behave and provide the framework from which we make decisions.

As the world becomes more connected, and as Artificial Intelligence becomes more pervasive, it is critical that we take a step back and consider the importance of the world views, ethics and morals and their influence on the technology we use on a daily basis.  We call this area "digital ethics," and most organizational leadership overwhelmingly agree that their organizations are behind in their readiness to address the challenges arising from digital ethics.  The speed at which ethics issues arise will only increase with the expanded use of AI and automation.  Our world is more digital and connected than ever before, and the effects of ignoring digital ethics will be significant.  

Think of Microsoft's Tay bot.  As many of us know, Microsoft overlooked the simple challenge of letting the bot know exactly what kind of input to trust and what kind of input to reject.  As a result, in less that 24 hours of Twitter conversations, Tay, a "conversational understanding" bot, became both misogynistic and racist.  Tay quickly assimilated our worst human tendencies into its personality and had to be disconnected from the on-line world.

We are reaching what some call a tipping point, a moment where the powers of technology surpass our ethical capabilities, as well as our capacity to foresee the consequences they will have on our personal life and our business.  So how do we address these concerns in a common way, given we all have a different worldview?

First, we have to agree on what to watch out for.  In my opinion, management of data will be the Achilles' heel.  Gartner predicts that by 2018, as many as half of business ethics violations will be caused by the improper use of big data and analytics.  Businesses must closely examine the data they keep and the reasons they do so.  Individuals must examine the data they share and consistently ask themselves, "am I willing to share something personal, for a better on-line experience, even if the use of the data, in the future, is unknown?"

Second, even with all the debate and various perspectives, we must start somewhere.  As with any risk in life, we need a framework in order to react effectively.  With increased transparency, compliance and privacy, companies that step up and take responsibility and accountability will lead the markets of tomorrow.  To do so, they need to develop and implement a digital ethics framework.  This framework should include guidelines on how to handle sensitive data, how to obtain client information and how the data or information collected will be used.  Companies should develop a framework that holds accountable the algorithms that drive the automation, robots and artificial intelligence solutions being rolled out.  They should also address, in my opinion, offering a fair value exchange for the data they collect.

A digital ethics framework, focused on the use of data, is only a starting point for this complex subject.  Moving forward, as AI becomes more pervasive in our lives, I expect automation debates to fill television news, social media and even our local town halls.  We will all bring a different perspective to the argument, but ultimately we must agree on the ethics that will be incorporated into the digital economies of the future.  Otherwise, we will have misogynistic, racist bots deciding the road should actually have 6 lanes.