24 Nov ‘20: Responsible Tech Bulletin

AI bots may soon write news, courts will go online, politicians use data to influence you, and FinTechs use algorithms to evaluate you. Each of these tech trends require careful consideration to ensure that they don’t exclude or discriminate against vulnerable groups, or affect the quality of our democracy. Data Governance Network, Centre for Internet & Society, and Young Leaders in Tech Policy write about the safeguards we need. This is important because, as Internet Democracy Project writes, technologies will affect different people differently — for example, some individuals acutely felt the prying eye of the government during the Covid crisis. Our current systems and safeguards are struggling to cope; we need big, bold steps. Like the one that IT for Change proposes — to separate the cloud, data, intelligence and application layers of Big Tech firms. Read on.

1. Taking forward Lina Khan’s ‘structural separation’ argument, @ITforChange sees Big Tech firms as four components — data, cloud, intelligence, application — and argues that they must be separated, so that we can reduce Big Tech’s power over our lives https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpe6InOqzQ0
2. Article in @Freedom_Gazette by @theBeeline_ explores how politicians use thousands of data points onour online behaviour, in order to identify each person’s biases and fears. The result is a deeply divided society, ruined by targeted misinformation https://www.freedomgazette.in/2020/11/how-the-internet-is-being-misused-to-manipulate-voters/
3. We’re all struggling to identify misinformation online, and things will only get worse once AI bots start writing news. The volume may drown out accurate news. @gauravrpjain explains in his @tech2eets article the gamut of challenges that this could create https://www.firstpost.com/tech/news-analysis/ai-bots-will-soon-write-news-articles-and-you-should-be-worried-8952061.html
4. Since time immemorial, banks, police and others have been predicting behaviour. Such predictions are now moving to algorithmic ‘black boxes’. Makes it critical to hold algos accountable, and prevent them from perpetuating bias. @cpcEU proposes a way ahead https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Stm1zJYqJLk&feature=emb_title
5. We must have control over data we generate. But, as @iNetDemocracy argues in this data brief, current conceptions of ‘data sovereignty’ treat data as a resource ‘out there’ to be used and controlled by government, rather than putting people in the center https://bit.ly/371Xfa4
6. As courts move online, we must think holistically about its impact. @cis_india response to @NITIAayog paper highlights need for independent regulator and standards for pvt players, clarity on privacy oversight and accounting for needs of different people https://bit.ly/35V3w86