Question

Who develops the technology?

Who controls the technology (or does it control us)?

Should there be “human intervention” in the technology development and use (e.g. are “robots” building “robots”)?

How does “surveillance” and “oversight” of the technology blur the lines of the impact of invasion of privacy versus security?

Answer 1

1)Who develops the technology?

As technology develops it takes society forward and affects how we live, work and socialize. In order to achieve sustainable technological development that benefits the entire society, diversity in both thoughts and perspective is required. Half of the population is female,but in the technology industry we are heavily under represented, which means that our perspective - along with the perspectives of other under represented groups - often is excluded.

At the Women in Tech conference that took place on International Women's Day, hundreds of women gathered to talk about technology and the future. One topic that was raised during several of the lectures was the fact that a large part of today's technology is based on those who make it - which often are men - and several of the lecturers gave concrete examples of problems with underrepresentation of social groups in the technology industry.

Joy Buolamwini, who calls herself a poet of code and is the founder of the Algorithmic Justice League, presented results from her research on MIT Media Lab. She had investigated the most prominent facial recognition systems available today and looked into their performance when it came to identifying women and men of different skin color. Unsurprisingly, the systems were really good at recognizing white men, while they failed to distinguish dark-skinned women's faces. She calls this phenomenon "the coded gaze" and argues that this technology is based on unfair exclusion, which in turn can lead to discrimination.

Danica Kragic, who is a researcher within robotics at KTH, also raised the importance of different perspectives among technology developers. She claimed that we soon will see more and more robots in society, a technology area where artificial intelligence will be significant. If we want to knock some kind of ethics and morals into our robots to make sure we can trust that they make the right decisions in different situations, it is important that all groups can contribute with their experience so that the robots can represent our opinions and choices.

Our mission as a technology company should therefore be to increase inclusion and diversity as much as possible. In addition, we must show that we are working actively to improve gender equality in order to retain and employ more women in our workplace. "We must all take our responsibility and take part" as a lecturer said, and ensure that technology is introduced and used in society with responsibility and sustainability.

2)Who controls the technology (or does it control us)?

“Technology is intrinsically neither good nor bad. The key is using it to support your goals and values.”

While technology can be very beneficial, it can control our lives without us even knowing it. Yes, it is nice having the ability to access anything and anyone at any time, but can we go five minutes without our phones?

Technology is eliminating face-to-face communication more and more. Business Insider states that the average person users their cell phone 2,617 times a day, so it’s no wonder interpersonal communication has become a rarity.

It is important to recognize that some problems of new norms can be developed to deal with them. We have to learn to control technology, and not allow technology to control us.

Technology and social media bring us instant communication, instant access to anything, and tons of entertainment, like Netflix or Hulu. That is exactly why it is so hard to be without our precious little cell phones.

3)Should there be “human intervention” in the technology development and use (e.g. are “robots” building “robots”)?

Some important consumer technologies would not exist in their current form without robotics. Robotics research has such strong links with several other research fields that without it, the modern world might not have some of its most promising technologies.

Robotics is truly an interdisciplinary research field. It draws lessons from other research fields, while also contributing new knowledge to those fields, some more than others. Without a long history of robotics research, we might not have several technologies which are becoming ever more prevalent in our modern world.

Example:

LiDAR (from the words "light" and "RADAR") is the latest in the line of wave-based range sensors, which began with its predecessors: RADAR (Radio Detection and Ranging) and SONAR (Sound Navigation and Ranging).

It uses light beams, usually lasers, to create high-resolution 3D point maps. Sensors detect the distance of the target by bouncing the beam off the target and measuring how long the light takes to return to the sensor.

Although LiDAR has a long history of development apart from robotics, ranging back to the 1970s, the latest wave of LiDAR 3D scanners has been a game changer for robots. Low cost scanners, such as the Hokuyu Laser Range Finders have finally given robots a way of reliably detecting their environment. They are now so ubiquitous, it's rare to see a mobile robot which doesn’t have a laser scanner.

Researchers have started to address many of the challenges which are unique to robotics, such as how to quickly detect objects from point clouds or how to manipulate objects with robotic grippers. These challenges would not have been explored by the original researchers of LiDAR technology. Robots operating in real-time need to perform calculations as quickly as possible, which has pushed the technology further than it would have progressed without robotics.

This is a perfect example of robotic researchers contributing new knowledge to another research field by applying their technology to engineering problems. This knowledge then feeds back into commercial products.

4)How does “surveillance” and “oversight” of the technology blur the lines of the impact of invasion of privacy versus security?

Surveillance technology is pervasive in our society today, leading to fierce debate between proponents and opponents. Government surveillance, in particular, has been brought increasingly under public scrutiny, with proponents arguing that it increases security, and opponents decrying its invasion of privacy.

For example: new ‘hybrid’ police-intelligence institutions have sprung up; information is freely exchanged between police and intelligence organizations; and information gathered by intelligence agencies is used in criminal proceedings. But an impulsive blurring of organizational boundaries is not a solution to growing fears of terrorism and serious cross-border crime. Secret or sensitive information should be used in a way that balances the need for intelligence gathering with the right of the defense to examine incriminating evidence.

Law enforcement conducts investigations after a crime occurs, while intelligence bodies collect information in advance of and even independently of any “event” occurring. It defines privacy, confidentiality, and security in the context of health-related information and outlines the concerns that health experts, legal authorities, information technology specialists, and society at large have about erosions in the protections accorded such information.

First, privacy embodies autonomy interests; it protects decisions about the exercise of fundamental constitutional liberties with respect to private behavior, such as decisions relating to marriage, procreation, contraception, family relationships, and child-rearing. This is frequently characterized as decisional privacy (Tribe, 1978). Second, privacy protects against surveillance or intrusion when an individual has a "reasonable expectation of privacy." Examples include protections against unlawful searches of one's home or person and unauthorized wiretapping. Third, privacy encompasses informational interests; this notion is most frequently expressed as the interest of an individual in controlling the dissemination and use of information that relates to himself or herself (Shils, 1966; Westin, 1967), or to have information about oneself be inaccessible to others.

When confidential data are transmitted across state lines, it is not always clear which state's confidentiality laws apply and which state's courts have jurisdiction over disputes concerning improper disclosure of information.Security is a matter of technology, management controls, procedures, and administrative oversight. In the public sector, the action agents are regulators; in the HDO, a policy and oversight board could establish security policies. Implementation and management would be provided by technical and system design personnel.