Navigating the Complex Field of Responsible Tech
By Deb Donig, Siegel Research Fellow for All Tech Is Human
This blog post is intended to help the All Tech Is Human community understand and navigate the increasingly complex and challenging job market in the field of what we have been calling “Responsible Tech.”
In today's rapidly evolving tech ecosystem, "Responsible Tech" has become a buzzword that encompasses a variety of roles, disciplines, and approaches. Those seeking to pursue a career in this space may find themselves confused by the plethora of terms: responsible technology, public interest technology, ethical technology, AI ethics, algorithmic justice, and more. What do these terms mean, and how do they translate to actual career paths?
This post aims to demystify the Responsible Tech landscape and provide practical advice for navigating this complex job market.
Understanding the Evolution of Responsible Tech
The field of Responsible Tech isn't unified under a single definition or approach. Rather, it has evolved from different historical traditions, each with a unique focus and methodology. We might view the broader set of approaches to values-driven forms of technological production, aimed at minimizing harms caused by technological production and maximizing human flourishing enabled by technological production, as broken down into three major categories, including “responsible technology,” “public interest technology,” and “ethical technology.”
We might understand “Responsible Technology,” as an approach, emerged from engineering societies in the 1970s, focusing on empowering technical workers to create products aligned with human values while minimizing harm. It centers on the agency and education of technologists, particularly those in technical roles. Those with technical backgrounds, who have traditionally worked in technical roles or whose background is in primarily technical skills fall into this category of jobs that allow you to directly influence product development through ethical design practices.
“Public Interest Technology” is a method and set of institutional practices with historical roots in regulatory and governmental approaches, public interest technology seeks to create political and social structures to guide technological development toward civic uses and values. This branch is more concerned with policy, governance, and methodologies for innovation that serve the public good. Careers in this space often involve working with government agencies, civil society organizations, or policy teams within tech companies.
Meanwhile, “Ethical Technology” has its origins in academic and philosophical contexts, and applies existing ethical considerations to technological production while developing new methodologies to assess the impact of technologies on humanity. Those drawn to this approach might find fulfillment in research roles, ethics advisory positions, or academic work that bridges philosophy and technology.
Understanding the Historical Origins
Given this complexity, understanding the historical origins of these different approaches isn't merely academic or a matter of semantics. Rather, understanding the distinctions between these terms, and applying this understanding to your job search has profound implications for your career trajectory. These distinctions reflect fundamental differences in where ethical responsibility is believed to reside in technological systems.
Organizations that emerged from the "responsible technology" tradition may prioritize hiring those with technical backgrounds who can implement ethical principles directly into products. Those aligned with "public interest technology" might value policy expertise and stakeholder engagement skills over technical depth. Companies operating from an "ethical technology" framework might place greater emphasis on philosophical training and ethical reasoning abilities. By recognizing these historical lineages, job seekers can better decode job descriptions, assess organizational cultures, and identify which sectors of the responsible tech ecosystem will value their particular skills and perspective. Moreover, understanding these distinctions helps job seekers frame their experience and skills in language that resonates with employers coming from different responsible tech traditions.
Having an Understanding of Different Classifications
To that end, having an understanding of these classifications is useful before diving into job applications. In your approach, you may want to reflect on where you believe ethical responsibility in technology resides. For instance, how do you identify yourself within the tense relationship between individual responsibility, governmental responsibility, and industry responsibility? Do you view your approach as primarily invested in
individual decision-making by technologists?
institutional structures and corporate policies?
governmental regulation and public policy?
philosophical frameworks and academic research?
Your answer will help determine which branch of Responsible Tech aligns with your values and career goals.
Of course, especially given the trend toward these historically distinct terms blending into one another, one of the most effective strategies that responsible technology practitioners can navigate across domains includes interdisciplinary training. To be able to negotiate public interest tech, responsible tech, and ethical tech terrains, workers should ideally have technical literacy, as even policy-focused roles benefit from understanding how technologies actually work. They should also be versed in methods and approaches to ethical frameworks, and possessing familiarity with key concepts in applied ethics helps ground your approach. Those interested in these jobs should consider developing policy knowledge, which allows them to understand regulatory landscapes helps translate values into practice. Together, this skill set allows workers the ability to translate between technical, ethical, and policy domains.
Putting the Pieces Together
When we start to understand the historical origins of the profession, we can understand where it has come from and where it may go. Workers should know the long lineage from which this work arises, and what it seeks, ultimately, to accomplish. Those going into this profession are not embarking on a new campaign; they are participating in a long tradition of work in this arena.
One task of anyone entering into one of these jobs is to understand that history, to be able to imagine, and shape the future of this profession and the ethic at its core. Where do you want to take this work? And what doors do you want to open up for those who will take it up in the future, in the next generation of the workforce?
These are decisions that those who are in these positions are responsible for negotiating forward. Given where we know this work comes from, where do we want it to go next?
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All Tech Is Human has a unique role that involves both understanding the ecosystem and having the ability to influence its direction through its extensive network and numerous activities.
Historical background of All Tech Is Human: All Tech Is Human was founded in NYC in 2018, holding its first gathering in March 2018 and then its first summit in October 2018. This first summit was referred to as an “Ethical Tech Summit.” Starting in 2019, All Tech Is Human started utilizing “Responsible Tech” as an umbrella term for many of the communities with overlapping interests that benefit from understanding each other and collaborating. Since this time, All Tech Is Human has become synonymous with the Responsible Tech movement through its regular Responsible Tech mixer, the ecosystem-defining annual Responsible Tech Guide (first published in September 2020), the popular Responsible Tech Job Board (also started in September 2020), and our large and growing Slack community specifically-geared towards the Responsible Tech community.
Read about the community makeup of All Tech Is Human, which draws technologists, those with a humanities background, and everyone in between.