Wednesday, January 22, 2020

Thinking and Teaching about Technology Policy Issues

What are the top technology issues for the 2020s? Brad Smith, Microsoft President, wrote an interesting post about a month ago called Dawn of a Decade: The Top Ten Tech Policy Issues for the 2020s

His list is:

  1. Sustainability - Tech’s role in the race to address climate change

  2. Defending Democracy - International threats and internal challenges

  3. Journalism - Technology needs to give the news business a boost

  4. Privacy in an AI Era - From the second wave to the third

  5. Data and National Sovereignty - Economics meet geopolitics

  6. Digital Safety - The need to constantly battle evolving threats

  7. Internet Inequality - A world of haves and have-nots

  8. A Tech Cold War - Will we see a digital iron curtain down the Pacific?

  9. Ethics for Artificial Intelligence - Humanity needs to govern machines

  10. Jobs and Income Inequality in an AI Economy - How will the world manage a disruptive decade?

I see a lot to agree with and a lot that requires some serious and deep thought. I wonder, for example,  how to square the concerns in 2, 4,8, and 9 with Microsoft’s businesses in China. It’s a topic well worth discussing.

OF course any of these issues, alone or in conjunction with others, are great topics for discussion in a class. Artificial Intelligence factors in with many, maybe most, of these issues. Are we preparing students for thinking about the reality of a world with AI is a major force in technology and eventually our daily lives?

Any way, I recommend the post.  It is long but worth the read. Maybe read it more than once. I plan to.

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