BCS - From Tech Support to Tech Ethics: following my conscience

This is not going to be a classic “how do I get a career in X” type talk! It’s more of a reflection on my path and how working in industry caused me to rethink my chosen career path and the stumbling blocks along the way.

In it I will look back at the “wild west” of the tech scene during and after the dot com boom, how ethics changed from a much-maligned aspect of technology development into one that is far more frequently discussed (if not necessarily acted upon), and what the field of technology ethics looks like today.

Along the way I’ll talk a little about some of the interesting projects I’ve done, from looking at the ethics of natural language processing back before AI was a “thing”, to helping rewrite the Association for Computing Machinery’s Code of Ethics, to working with diverse communities in Leicester on what their visions for the future of technology might look like.

I’ll also talk about the future of ethics, and why I’ve focused on the world of video games as an emerging space for exciting discussions around how technology and society interact with each other.

From all of my experience, hopefully you’ll go (metaphorically) home with a view to how ethics can positively influence technology rather than simply act as road-blocks to innovation, and how you might get involved if thinking more philosophically about technology is of interest.