All Tech Is Human Library Podcast Series #10 | Reid Blackman
In the tenth conversation of a sixteen-part All Tech is Human Library Podcast interview series, CEO of Virtue and author of Ethical Machines Reid Blackman joins David Ryan Polgar for a conversation about the importance of ethics in artificial intelligence. Blackman helps us understand how the unrest of the last decade have created an opportunity for technologists to be more conscious about the technology they build — and which values are accounted for. Check out the full podcast series here.
About Reid Blackman
Reid Blackman, Ph.D., is the author of “Ethical Machines: Your Concise Guide to Totally Unbiased, Transparent, and Respectful AI (Harvard Business Review Press), Founder and CEO of Virtue, an AI ethical risk consultancy, and volunteer Chief Ethics Officer for the non-profit Government Blockchain Association. He has also been a member of EY’s AI Advisory Board, a Senior Advisor to the Deloitte AI Institute, and a professor of philosophy at Colgate University and UNC-Chapel Hill. His work, which includes advising and speaking to organizations including AWS, US Bank, the FBI, NASA, and the World Economic Forum, has been profiled in The Wall Street Journal and Forbes. Learn more at reidblackman.com.
Key Takeaways
Ethics can be woven into companies’ decision-making and practices using risk modeling and mitigation.
Wide-scale organizational change requires buy-in at the decision-making level; without that buy-in, it’s difficult to make progress.
A better tech future involves examining emerging technologies and their interactions for a comprehensive understanding of our digital ethical risks.
Quotes
“Yeah, surely they didn't prioritize it and they were, you know, they just wanna make cool shit, right? That's what, when people get into tech, that's what they wanna do. They wanna make cool shit. Who can blame them? Making cool shit is fun. But when you do that and you don't think about the sort of broader societal implications, there's a bunch of unintended consequences. And when you don't realize that the kinds of decisions that you're making actually have ethical impact, you're gonna wind up with things that are ethically problematic.” 4:57 - 5:22
“And then when I sat down to write each chapter, let's say write a chapter on bias, I said to myself, 'Okay, so if I were to go walk into the classroom, and I was gonna talk to 'em about bias. What would I talk about? What would I say? How would I introduce them to the topic and how would I lead them down a path of greater understanding of illuminating the problem and what solutions look like to that problem?' Well, I would say this, this, this, and this. Oh, okay. I'm just gonna write that then. And that became the chapter. So that was my process. So it wasn't, in some broad sense, it wasn't that difficult. It was trading on, you know, 15 ish years of experience of teaching, [and] 20 plus years of researching and understanding ethics.” 6:57 - 7:32
“Ethics is a tough language. Most people don't talk the language of ethics. Companies don't talk the language of ethics. In fact, I was told early on when I started my business by a senior executive at a Fortune 500 company, 'You might not wanna use the word ethics. That scares people.'” 9:44 - 9:56
“So that's the AI for not bad stuff, that's, that's ethical risk mitigation. So it's not trying to achieve positive social impact. It's trying to say, 'Look, you're gonna do what you're gonna do and doing what you're gonna do. Don't put your reputation in people's lives on the line.' And that's where I focus my efforts, you know? Most of what I do is helping people to not realize those ethical risks along the way.” 14:18 - 14:40
“And so what I see, if things got better is corporations wouldn't just be looking at, if you like AI ethical risks or even, or just privacy or big data. They'd be looking at what I like to call digital ethical risks, and what does a robust, comprehensive program look like that takes care of or addresses all the ethical risks, each of the ethical risks of those technologies and the ways in which they relate. So the better future looks like one in which there are widely deployed robust digital, ethical risk programs and corporations around the world.” 20:18 - 20:51
Learn More About Reid Blackman
Website | LinkedIn
Credits:
David Ryan Polgar - Moderator
Reid Blackman - Interviewee
Unfinished Live - Producers
