The tech industry is starting to talk openly about the downsides of software and algorithms mediating our lives. There have been calls for regulation, which have been met with increased lobbying to block or shape any rules, but some people around the industry are entertaining forms of self-regulation. One idea that has been tossed around is whether programmers and data scientists massaging our data sign a kind of digital Hippocratic oath. Last month, Microsoft released a 151-page book on the effects of artificial intelligence on society that argued “it could make sense” to have coders take a pledge similar to physicians that essentially says, “first do no harm.” On Tuesday, dozens of scientists in San Francisco from different tech companies, governments and nonprofits gathered to start drafting an ethics code for their profession. DJ Patil, chief data scientist for the United States under President Obama, told Wired, “We have to empower the people working on technology to say ‘Hold on, this isn’t right.” The discussion yielded a list of 20 principals that will be reviewed and released for wider feedback in coming weeks. Some of those principals include: Bias will exist. Measure it. Plan for it,” “Respecting human dignity,” and “Exercising ethical imagination.”
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