Thread by @rachelcoldicutt

So @ruchowdh makes an important point here - “ethics and AI [is] not just about improving the technology; it’s about improving the society behind the technology” - but that is one perspective on a spectrum, and it’s a political one. [thread] siliconangle.com/2019/02/22/mee…

For the platforms - Facebook, Google, Amazon - ethics has to be about minimising negative impact. In the middle, where most businesses sit, ethical AI should be about leaving no trace; leaving society as you found it, without making new inequalities or deepening existing ones.

Believe it or not, the most complex category is businesses who want to make actively society better, because in doing that, choices are made. Who is it better for? Other than the SDGs, almost nothing is better for everyone. This is a political choice.

And it is partly complex because it’s not democratic. Perhaps democratic politics is broken, but vetting power in businesses who want to make things better comes with considerable risk, and requires governance.

Doing “good’ needs some kind of regulatory environment too. This is how government used to work (at least in the U.K.) and I guess we need an alternative now, as it all explodes. But Stan Lee had this one: with great power comes great responsibility.

I don’t have any answers here, but: beware soft power.

Also, if we’re taking carbon as a useful analogy (businesses can offset, leave no trace, plant trees), my view is that we need to drive as many businesses to the middle - to make leaving no trace the only acceptable option.

On the one hand, CSR as ethical offsetting or Bezos-style entrepreneurial philanthropy is kind of “theatre of ethics” - it’s sleight of hand to stop you looking the other way. On the other, there is no tech equivalent to planting trees, because no systemic, political view of good

I think we need compelling moral and political vision to guide what good looks like. Fulfilling the SDGs in responsible and ethical ways is a start, but even that isn’t easy to do when e.g. WFP are working with Palantir.

So - genuine question - is leave no trace the best short term answer, and the thing to regulate for? Is it something that can endure across political timeframes and perspectives, while infrastructure and systems are developed?