As tech has become ever-more powerful, the finger-pointing is ever-more vigorous. Whether it’s around data privacy transgressions, biased algorithms, or the mental health impact of social media on young people, companies have increasingly found themselves in the firing line.
I’d contend, though, that the negative effects of technology are more often the result of a failure to think through its full implications, rather than a conspiracy to create irresponsible tech per se. It’s a point we highlight in the Responsible Tech lens of our latest Looking Glass report.
An episode I heard about in Uganda, where I was delivering a workshop for Unicef during a sabbatical, illustrates the importance of looking ahead to outmaneuver the law of unintended consequences. And it’s a tale that directly translates into the Responsible Tech space.
Culture matters
Local women were accustomed to walking together each day, to and from a well a mile out of their village. An NGO then installed a water pipe in the village center and was mystified when it was repeatedly sabotaged. It turned out that some of the women were the saboteurs, frustrated that the convenience of mains water on tap was disrupting the established social norm of interaction on their daily walk to fetch water — leading, instead, to their isolation.
Such a failure to fully understand context is a trap that’s all too easy to fall into with technology when looking to do good — like a database of lost children with photographs we once built for the UN. Fortunately, its significant potential for traffickers was quickly realized and appropriate safeguards put in place. We can too easily focus simply on being problem solvers before moving on to the next challenge — rather than understanding what our proposals will mean for all stakeholders.
No end in sight
A journalist once was asked me what constitutes ‘done’ from a technology perspective. It was a good question: it reminded me that maintaining a sharp focus on ‘the now’ is every bit as important as awareness of the need to evaluate all the possibilities of what might come next.
I answered that if you want to be truly responsible in how you think about technology, it's important you never see anything as 'done.' The landscape is continually evolving with opportunities and risks emerging together and often in ways we didn't anticipate. For example, what we have to think about currently in the context of Gen AI is very different to what we had to think about just over a year ago before ChatGTP landed so noisily.
So, smart thinking around Responsible Tech is not just about being aware of what could happen next as a result of our well-intentioned actions. It’s about being fully engaged with the now — by constantly reevaluating what we’re protecting ourselves from in real time, whether its malicious actors, questionable corporate behavior, or a brand-new tech peril.
The good news for businesses is that there’s plenty of low hanging fruit to grab onto as part of a planned Responsible Tech strategy that aims to cover all the bases. There are quick wins around cybersecurity, for example using automatic security scanning for the OWASP Top 10 Security Vulnerabilities. Ensuring that websites are optimized for maximum disabled access. Or even making 100% sure that default passwords such as ‘admin’ are not used on internet-facing servers.
Read Thoughtworks’ latest Looking Glass report to help shape a Responsible Tech posture that places both thorough assessment of current factors and deep analysis of possible consequences center stage.
Disclaimer: The statements and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the positions of Thoughtworks.
