The world knows about tech’s love affair with, and misuse of, personal data. The continual ignoring, minimizing and excusing of hate speech, revenge porn, fake news, bullying, etc.
Then there is its totally irrational attitude/belief that people will be kind and good to each other online no matter what they are like in the real world.
Given the prevailing attitude, would a hot tech startup have a conscience?
So would a founder, a self-described “technology enthusiast,” create an AI app that went viral and then shut it down because of the way it was being used?
DeepNude was built on Pix2Pix, an open-source algorithm used for “image-to-image translation.” the app can create a naked image from any picture of a woman with just a couple of clicks. Revenge porn activists said the app was “absolutely terrifying.”
As to the above question, the answer is “yes.”
The DeepNude team was horrified, believing “the probability that people will misuse it is too high.”
“We don’t want to make money this way. Surely some copies of DeepNude will be shared on the web, but we don’t want to be the ones who sell it,” DeepNude wrote in a tweet. “The world is not yet ready for DeepNude.”
Pix2Pix was developed by a team of scientists, who now believe the industry needs to do better and not just release their work to the world at large.
“We have seen some wonderful uses of our work, by doctors, artists, cartographers, musicians, and more,” the MIT professor Phillip Isola, who helped create Pix2Pix, told Business Insider in an email. “We as a scientific community should engage in serious discussion on how best to move our field forward while putting reasonable safeguards in place to better ensure that we can benefit from the positive use-cases while mitigating abuse.”
One can only hope that the scientific community does, indeed, find a way to do good while avoiding the worst of the negative fallout from discoveries.
And hats off to the DeepNude team.
It’s really inspiring to see such a concrete example of doing the right thing, with no shilly-shallying or dancing around the decision.
But I do wonder what would have happened if either the developers or the scientists were beholden to investors.
It’s amazing to me, but looking back over more than a decade of writing I find posts that still impress, with information that is as useful now as when it was written.
Golden Oldies is a collection of some of the best posts during that time.
I wrote this in 2012 with high hopes that more bosses would move in Chris’ direction, with an eye to making their workplaces more socially responsible and individuals more aware of the world outside their little corner of it. Sadly, the importance of ‘me’ has grown considerably, dwarfing, at least in the media, those who strive to move beyond that narrow focus.
A Friday series exploring Startups and the people who make them go. Read allIf the Shoe Fits posts here
I met an interesting guy over the holiday.
“Chris” has a small startup in the financial services sector and is starting to gain traction.
He said it’s been an uphill battle and that he wishes he had spent the same energy doing something “socially responsible,” because it would be a lot more satisfying.
I’ve heard similar comments from other entrepreneurs and small biz owners.
Happily, this is one of those times it is possible to “have it all,” because all it takes is changing the way you look at the world.
Having a socially responsible business doesn’t require a focus on solving social ills and it certainly doesn’t mean forgoing profit—without profit your business won’t be around.
It does mean running your business in a responsible manner
pricing fairly, passing on savings whenever possible and never gouging
fair wages and other compensation
fair employee treatment (not playing favorites, etc.)
reducing your carbon footprint
community involvement and contributing whenever possible; and
None of this is rocket science and all of it makes good, profitable, business sense.
In fact, Chris and others who feel the pull to help fix the world would do well to read Richard Branson’s Screw Business As Usual to see how others are ‘doing well by doing good’.
Note: the unseen pause is between ‘screw’ and ‘business’, not between ‘business’ and ‘as’,
A Friday series exploring Startups and the people who make them go. Read allIf the Shoe Fits posts here
I met an interesting guy over the holiday.
“Chris” has a small startup in the financial services sector and is starting to gain traction.
He said it’s been an uphill battle and that he wishes he had spent the same energy doing something “socially responsible,” because it would be a lot more satisfying.
I’ve heard similar comments from other entrepreneurs and small biz owners.
Happily, this is one of those times it is possible to “have it all,” because all it takes is changing the way you look at the world.
Having a socially responsible business doesn’t require a focus on solving social ills and it certainly doesn’t mean forgoing profit—without profit your business won’t be around.
It does mean running your business in a responsible manner
pricing fairly, passing on savings whenever possible and never gouging
fair wages and other compensation
fair employee treatment (not playing favorites, etc.)
reducing your carbon footprint
community involvement and contributing whenever possible; and
None of this is rocket science and all of it makes good, profitable, business sense.
In fact, Chris and others who feel the pull to help fix the world would do well to read Richard Branson’s Screw Business As Usual to see how others are ‘doing well by doing good’.
Note: the unseen pause is between ‘screw’ and ‘business’, not between ‘business’ and ‘as’,
Option Sanity™ is socially responsible
Come visit Option Sanity for an easy-to-understand, simple-to-implement stock process—so easy a CEO can do it.
Warning.
Do not attempt to use Option Sanity™ without a strong commitment to business planning, financial controls, honesty, ethics, and “doing the right thing.” Use only as directed.
Users of Option Sanity may experience sudden increases in team cohesion and worker satisfaction. In cases where team productivity, retention and company success is greater than typical, expect media interest and invitations as keynote speaker.
It’s not often that I unequivocally recommend a book, but Richard Branson’s Screw Business As Usual meets all my criteria.
It’s not a do-gooder book, per se, although Branson is passionate about “doing good by doing right.”
I realize that his take on entrepreneurism will fall on deaf ears for anybody who starts a company with the prime motivation of getting rich, but even they might reconsider after reading it—Branson started Virgin so he could afford to make a difference.
And there is prime proof that doing right pays.
“Companies that consistently manage and measure their responsible business activities outperformed their FTSE 350* peers on total shareholder return in seven out of the last eight years.”
Branson believes that the right focus is your employees and your customers; take care of them and the rest will follow.
The people, stories and advice in Screw Business As Usual are about, and dedicated to, entrepreneurs, business people and anybody else who believe that there is more to work and business in the 21st century than making money.
What worked in the past isn’t going to work in the future, from top-down, command and control management to companies whose policies destroy people, resources, etc., in the name of profit.
The doing-good-by-doing-right bandwagon is picking up steam, fueled by a vocal new generation that is disgusted with business as usual and older generations (maybe not as noisy) with the same feelings who are learning to vote with their feet—as US banks so recently found out.
Business needs to recognize that if they want to keep making money they need to do it responsibly—assuming, of course, they need both workers and customers to succeed.
In other words, screw business as usual.
*FTSE 350 is the British version of the Fortune 500.
Entrepreneurs: Screw Business As Usual (book review)
I rarely read book that I unequivocally recommend, but Screw Business As Usual meets my criteria.
It’s not a do-gooder book, per se, although Branson is passionate about “doing good by doing right.”
I realize that his take on entrepreneurism will fall on deaf ears for anybody who starts a company with the prime motivation of getting rich, but even they might reconsider after reading it.
And there is prime proof that doing right pays.
“Companies that consistently manage and measure their responsible business activities outperformed their FTSE 350* peers on total shareholder return in seven out of the last eight years.”
Branson believes that the right focus is your employees and your customers; take care of them and the rest will follow.
The people, stories and advice in Screw Business As Usual are about, and dedicated to, entrepreneurs, business people and anybody else who believe that there is more to work and business in the 21st century than making money.
What worked in the past isn’t going to work in the future, from top-down, command and control management to companies whose policies destroy people, resources, etc., in the name of profit.
The doing-good-by-doing-right bandwagon is picking up steam, fueled by a vocal new generation that is disgusted with business as usual and older generations (maybe not as noisy) with the same feelings who vote with their feet as US banks so recently found out.
Business needs to recognize that if they want to keep making money they need to do it responsibly—assuming, of course, they need both workers and customers to succeed.
*FTSE 350 is the British version of the Fortune 500.
A Friday series exploring Startups and the people who make them go. Read allIf the Shoe Fits posts here
Have you ever had something you were aware jump up and hit you in the face? It’s not new information and your reaction is the same, but the impact is enormous?
That is what’s happening to me as I read Richard Branson’s Screw Business As Usual (I’ll be reviewing it next Thursday, December 22)
Maybe it’s just the entrepreneurs Branson talks about, but their goals seem so different from the entrepreneurs in the US.
The “already done it”entrepreneurs in Branson’s book grew up, as did Branson, with an eye to improving the world and knowing that they needed to a financial base from which to do it, but they never lost track of their main goal.
The current entrepreneurs he describes, many of them young, have a keen focus on creating jobs and improving their communities and see their company as a way to accomplish that.
They buy whole-heartedly into Branson’s basic idea for running Virgin, i.e., doing good is good for business.
Whereas a large segment of US entrepreneurs, especially the younger ones, seem to see their startups as the fastest way to get rich since the financial, consulting and legal sector jobs dried up.
Obviously, not all of them, but a significant number.
“Doing well by doing good” just isn’t mainstream in the US.
Or is it?
Where do you fit?
Option Sanity™ helps equity do the right thing for all your stakeholders.
Come visit Option Sanity for an easy-to-understand, simple-to-implement stock process. It’s so easy a CEO can do it.
Warning.
Do not attempt to use Option Sanity™ without a strong commitment to business planning, financial controls, honesty, ethics, and “doing the right thing.” Use only as directed.
Users of Option Sanity may experience sudden increases in team cohesion and worker satisfaction. In cases where team productivity, retention and company success is greater than typical, expect media interest and invitations as keynote speaker.
Today is the the final difference between leaders and managers as delineated by Warren Bennis, then tomorrow we wrap up the question with an overview of the two roles in the light of today’s modern workforce.
The manager does things right; the leader does the right thing.
Great sound bite, but I think it’s both meaningless and insulting. Ignoring the fact that ‘the right thing’ is situational, why is doing it strictly the purview of leaders? Does doing the wrong thing correctly make it OK?
Entrepreneurs face difficulties that are hard for most people to imagine, let alone understand. You can find anonymous help and connections that do understand at 7 cups of tea.
Crises never end.
$10 really does make a difference and you’ll never miss it,
I met an interesting guy over the holiday.
Today is the the final difference between leaders and managers as delineated by Warren Bennis, then tomorrow we wrap up the question with an overview of the two roles in the light of today’s modern workforce.
