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Ethics are extremely important as technologies thrive

Mustafa Suleyman, Co-founder of DeepMind, calls for the awareness of ethical standards for technology development.

Rapid technological advances continue to make contributions to society’s well-being, but we must also  be mindful of public opinion. The founder of DeepMind wrote in his article on RSA Journal (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce) that public concern over technological changes and advances should not be simply dismissed, and warned that there is likely a gap between attitudes towards technology amongst developers and users.

In the critique, measures are suggested to address societal challenges that might arise as a result of technological advances. One challenge is the asymmetry of information between developers and the general public regarding how technology works, leading to potential conflicts between governments, activists and technologists … instead of these groups working together. Hence, it is essential to have new technical solutions that enable wide range of stakeholders to understand how their data is used, and how algorithms work.

The Michael Dukakis Institute for Leadership and Innovation (MDI) has developed the AIWS 7-Layer Model to allow future generations to address precisely the types of ethical concerns raised by DeepMind.