If we want to address society’s most pressing and persistent challenges, from climate change to inequality, then technology will have a leading role to play. Scientific breakthroughs facilitated by artificial intelligence could make the crucial difference, by helping to discover new knowledge, ideas and strategies in the areas that matter most to us all.
But increasing public concern about some elements of the technology industry should serve as a wake-up call. Tech is too important, and its effects are too wide-ranging, not to form part of the public debate. Beneath the individual issues raised, there are at least three asymmetries between the world of tech and the real world.
First, the disconnect between people who develop technologies and the communities who use them. Salaries in Silicon Valley are twice the median wage for the rest of the US and the employee base is unrepresentative when it comes to gender, race, class and more. Technology isn’t value neutral, and it needs to be built and shaped by diverse communities if we are to minimise the risk of unintended harms.