On the first Global Natters session of the year, we were talking about Technology, life and human rights. Starting with Hannah Fry’s talk on the topic “Should Computers Run the World?” a lot of interesting ideas came up, specially made us think about how algorithms are increasingly used to make decisions in different areas such as healthcare, finance or security. The question is: How can they best be used and what happens when things go wrong?
In this session, we’ve seen both sides of technology. For example, emerging technologies, such as AI, may significantly expand the availability and quality of data that informs policy and healthcare decisions for the benefit of society. But on the other hand, a variety of new risks emerge with their use, such as automated systems making discriminatory decisions.
Software is not magic. It’s written by and trained by humans.
So, coming back to Hannah’s speech and as a general conclusion for today’s topic, we agreed on how the Internet and other technologies are critical tools to defend rights and hold powerful actors to account, that must be used in an ethical and responsible way to ensure that these advances in technology benefit all people and do not exacerbate inequality or contribute to other purposes.