Summary
IFTF’s Ethical OS Toolkit has been used by many organizations and agencies across the civic sector, including the California state legislature, the United States Conference of Mayors, and other local governments, to bring more foresight and long-term thinking to policy decisions about new technologies. In response to high demand from government entities, and with support from the Tingari-Silverton Foundation, the IFTF Governance Futures Lab has developed this Playbook for Ethical Tech Governance. Adapted from the original Ethical OS, the Playbook will equip civil servants with the skills and tools to proactively resolve ethical dilemmas emerging from the constantly evolving landscape of new technology and new social and political dynamics. It’s intended to help those working in government, or leaders in the public sector, to make better long-term decisions by increasing their foresight capacity, allowing them to develop future-facing regulatory structures that help them anticipate the worst consequences of technology before they happen. In this session, Ilana Lipsett will present Institute for the Future's Playbook for Ethical Tech Governance, a decision-making guide for governments and leaders who are charged with regulating change and mitigating risk, all while encouraging innovation. The guide was designed to help safeguard against both intended and unintended consequences of techno-social shifts. This session will include an overview of the Playbook, along with a live demo of how to apply these principles and put them into action using a Decision Tree worksheet that accompanies the guide.
Key Insights
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Social media platforms in 2016 were unregulated spaces ruled by private commercial interests that profoundly impacted democratic elections.
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Shoshana Zuboff describes the internet as a private commodity masquerading as a public good, leading to misaligned social norms.
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Mark Zuckerberg’s 2010 decision to make Facebook profiles public by default exemplified how tech companies can redefine social norms without regulation.
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Technology generates as many new social problems as solutions, often due to unanticipated uses and a lack of foresight.
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Ethical technology governance requires anticipatory, future-focused regulatory frameworks to avoid post-crisis reactive fixes.
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Futures thinking trains our brains to imagine diverse potential outcomes by creating 'future memories,' overcoming human bias toward past-based predictions.
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IFTF’s ethical tech governance playbook uses near and long-term future scenarios to help policymakers navigate complex ethical dilemmas posed by emerging technologies.
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The 2032 citizen scientist pollution drone scenario highlights tensions between transparency, trust, regulation, and public participation in tech governance.
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Inclusive governance requires centering the voices of communities most negatively impacted by technological decisions through participatory, bottom-up processes.
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Decolonizing futures thinking and diversifying technology creators can democratize innovation and internalize ethical safeguards from the outset.
Notable Quotes
"People assume the information space, the internet, is public, but it is ruled by private commercial interests for maximum profit."
"We decided that public profiles would be the social norm, and we just went for it, because no laws existed to challenge it."
"Technology creates as many new problems as new solutions—many future problems come from technologies that look like solutions today."
"The internet as a self-regulating market is a failed experiment."
"We need anticipatory governance and future-facing regulatory structures to uphold democratic norms."
"Future thinking is not about predicting the future, but about anticipating risks and consequences of our actions today."
"Futures thinking hacks our neurobiology to expand the mental space available for imagining diverse futures beyond our current reality."
"Governance is a system of people, and it is hard for people to think about futures different from their past experiences."
"We have failed to point our imagination in the right direction when we say something was unimaginable."
"Whoever has been and might continue to be most negatively impacted absolutely needs to be centered in governance conversations."
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