- If you've been to a movie theater in the last few years,
you've likely noticed that there are now
pre-movie announcements about the use
of smartphones during the show.
These short videos usually ask you to power off your device
as a courtesy to other moviegoers.
It's the kind of thing we could never have anticipated
just a few years ago.
As technology evolves, acceptable norms change, too.
While some of these new behaviors emerge quickly
because new technology raises obvious issues
concerning areas such as safety, courtesy, and convenience,
other responsibilities and responses aren't so clear.
They are more complex and take much longer to settle.
Two areas that represent goods examples
of this are privacy and artificial intelligence.
In particular, our ethical responses as they relate
to areas like these will test and stretch
our leadership competencies with much more frequency
in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
What do we mean by ethics in this context?
It is the discipline dealing with what is good and bad
and with moral duty and obligation.
What might be right for one person
or culture quickly becomes debatable for another.
We see this play out in terms
of how different societies view the role
of government and healthcare or the death penalty.
We see it with voting and drinking age,
with drug use and social safety nets.
It's driven by complex motivations that include tradition,
culture, religion, politics, and economics.
But here's why we need to be even more concerned
with this now.
While ethics traditionally evolves over a long period
of time, the challenges we face from accelerate impact,
scope, and velocity means we will often not have the luxury.
In the Fourth Industrial Revolution,
ethical dilemmas associated with privacy
and AI will arise much more often.
Just the mere mention of the word privacy
probably brings up a particular view you have of the topic.
Privacy as a 21st century notion is an area
of significant debate.
Some argue we're already in a post-privacy world.
We also have unanswered questions
and ambiguity about who owns our data
and what can be done with it.
Do we need a data Bill of Rights?
But let's be clear, privacy has always been a tough topic,
but it's become a lot more complex
since the Third Industrial Revolution.
The ease at which information can be stored
and shared in a digital format creates enormous benefits
and risks.
To live and thrive in a 21st century urban society
means we've already given up a lot of our privacy.
In fact, sharing data is often necessary.
Consider the fact that your smartphone could be broadcasting
your location 24/7.
Think about your use of credit cards
and how the data on that tells so much about what you do,
when you do it, what you like and don't like, and much more.
Cameras in cities record so much of our activity.
Research has shown, for example,
that a Londoner is captured on a camera up
to 300 times per day.
Now let's briefly look at the ethics of AI.
On one level alone, we must consider this question,
what should AI be able to do independently
versus what must be deferred to a human for judgment?
The answer to this question is changing often.
What would you be comfortable with?
What would offer the optimum efficiency?
What is our moral responsibility?
And is this complicated?
Sure.
To bring this topic home, let's look at one example
in one domain.
It's the role of AI in autonomous vehicles.
Let's set the stage.
A level five autonomous vehicle is navigating
to a destination with passengers.
The vehicle is completely in control
and the passengers are enjoying the time being
disengaged from the trip itself.
The vehicle is powered by AI,
and is largely executing routine judgements
that have been acquired through millions
of existing trips learned from every other
autonomous vehicle that has ever driven.
But suddenly a new situation emerges, it's a tough one.
The vehicle must avoid colliding with a small group
of three people who are crossing the road,
but in doing so, will kill one unrelated person
on the opposite side of the road.
We'll assume that no other options exist.
Is killing one person who has nothing
to do with the situation the ethical thing
to do versus killing the group of three
who shouldn't have been crossing the street
to oncoming traffic?
How does AI derive the moral compass to make this decision?
Let's make it a little more difficult.
If, in the same situation, there are three people in the way
of the vehicle and three people on the opposite side
of the road, should the car crash
and risk killing the passenger of the vehicle?
What happens when there is one in the way,
one on the opposite side of the road, and one passenger?
Who should die?
If you're struggling with processing
how each of these dilemmas should be solved,
you've just discovered the ethical challenges
of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
While not everyone of our future dilemmas will involve life
and death, they will certainly involve uncomfortable
and unfamiliar judgments.
They will involve privacy, responsibility,
culture, rights, and more.
These issues will impact everyone of us
and our organizations.