Many of today's prominent computer scientists entered the field decades ago, inspired by the potential of digital technology to hold powerful institutions to account. But gradually tech has become an instrument of power. The tech industry itself badly needs more accountability.
To stay true to our ideals, computer scientists—especially in academia—must reexamine our cozy relationship with the industry. We must broaden our focus: in addition to building technology, we need to incorporate critical thinking about its double-edged effects on society.
The CS community has responded to ethical concerns by promoting a distinct field, algorithmic fairness. There are many questionable things about this approach. "Fairness" is a narrow conception of ethical responsibility, and it tends to get further reduced to a technical problem.
Most importantly, giving ethics-minded scholars their own community with its own conferences and academic brownie points means less pressure on the rest of computer science to make much-needed yet difficult structural changes to funding models, research priorities, and curricula.
