If the Shoe Fits: Business, Responsibility and Ethics
by Miki SaxonA Friday series exploring Startups and the people who make them go. Read all If the Shoe Fits posts here
As a founder, do you have an ethical or moral responsibility to consider the ramifications of your product on society — globally, not just locally?
In Numbers, a TV show that ran from 2005 to 2010, the central character, Charlie Eppes, was a young, prodigy mathematician. One storyline forced him to question his long held belief on his responsibility in innovation.
I always believed it was my duty to develop numerical tools and someone else’s to use them wisely.
Is that what you think?
In your drive for sales would you sell to any who could pay or would you scrutinize them to assure ethical usage?
Some companies do just that.
Data analysis powerhouse Palantir has been ultra-careful since it was founded.
Palantir can afford not to sell to just anybody — you have to believe in its values, too (…) Palantir once turned down a partnership with a tobacco company “for fear the company would harness the data to pinpoint vulnerable communities to sell cigarettes to,” CEO Alex Karp told Fortune.
Jad Saliba, Magnet Forensics’ founder/CTO and ex-cop is emphatic on the subject.
“The two areas I care most about are combating terrorism and child exploitation,” he says, adding that he hopes to keep his company on the side of the angels. “We spend a lot of time validating who we sell to … We sell to people who are going to use it ethically.”
Big Data in all its forms has enormous potential for good — and even larger potential for abuse.
And AI even more so.
From man’s earliest days, every new discovery has been a two-edged sword — fire can bestow life or death.
And while the final, future outcome of an innovation can’t be predicted, it should still be the responsibility of its creator, whether individual or company, to work to assure whatever it is is used responsibly.
Image credit: HikingArtist