Year: 2022
Type: article
Abstract: In 2020, the US senate held a series of antitrust hearings – involving some of the world’s leading tech companies – which highlighted the potentially double-edged nature of emerging digital technologies such as artificial intelligence or the Internet of Things. Beyond these technologies alone, digitalization (Legner et al. 2017 ) leveraging these technologies drives an ever stronger and more fundamental transformation of social and economic processes (Wessel et al. 2021 ). While these transformations are often linked to opportunities for social and economic growth, we are beginning to realize that these technologies also cause potentially undesirable side-effects. The hearings covered a range of contentious topics – such as the role of free speech of social media or bias in algorithmic decision making – emphasizing that the ability to identify, analyze, and potentially mitigate ethical tensions related to digital technologies and data is a key skill in the transformation toward a digital economy and society. Consequently, the need for scrutiny and safeguards becomes paramount if progress in not only to be driven by what is technologically possible, but by what is societally desirable and sustainable.
Author: Benjamin Mueller
Institution: University of Bremen
Language: English
Subfield: Safety Research
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $3,390
Funder: Universität Bremen
OpenAlex ID: W4285089992