Fully Charged
Pessimism reigns
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Hi it's Adam Satariano. The massive European tech conference Web Summit just wrapped in Lisbon. With more than 60,000 attendees from 170 countries, the event provided a good barometer for how the industry feels in the face of a barrage of negative publicity and increased scrutiny, and the mood was decidedly gloomy.
Renowned scientist Stephen Hawking warned of artificial intelligence’s existential threat to humanity. Top European regulator Margrethe Vestager outlined how global technology companies misuse their power. Even Jim Breyer, one of Facebook’s earliest investors, spoke of a growing backlash. Steve Case, the AOL co-founder, said tech executives are becoming viewed as favorably as Wall Street bankers.
There’s good reason to be anxious. Every day brings news about tax avoidance, anticompetitive business practices, sexism, Russia political interference, privacy violations, and slow responses to hate speech and harassment, among many other issues.
Breyer, who joined Apple’s Tim Cook, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and other tech executives during a recent trip to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping, expects companies to face more regulation globally. After years of being viewed positively by the public and policymakers, Breyer said technologists must become more aware of the negative ethical, societal and economic impacts of their creations, however unintentional. “I never for a moment thought in April 2005, when I first met Mark Zuckerberg, that in 2017 a central topic would be Facebook and Russia,” Breyer said in an interview, referring to the manipulation of the social network during the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Now, he said, “there’s more awareness around the implications of the technological development.”
Vestager, the aggressive head of competition oversight at the European Union, showed she’s ready for more battles with the industry after recent fines against Apple, Google and Amazon. The Danish regulator said the EU may investigate companies for data accumulated on users and whether the info is misused to limit competition. After requiring Apple to pay $15 billion last year, she now wants to know more about the iPhone maker’s use of the English Channel island of Jersey as a tax shelter, as disclosed in the leaked legal documents known as the Paradise Papers.
Meanwhile, Hawking reiterated his concerns about artificial intelligence, saying “the rise of AI will either be the best or the worst thing that could happen to society.” While the technology could help solve environmental and economic problems, he and others said it presents grave risks if not approached carefully.
The introspection didn’t stop many from maintaining a rosy view of the future -- and having a good time. Uber revealed plans to build a network that will allow flying cars to transport people around urban areas. Scores of entrepreneurs remain eager to join the tech industry, and enthusiastically pitched ideas to investors and journalists. Bars in downtown Lisbon were crowded with badge-carrying attendees.
Dustin Moskovitz, the Facebook co-founder now running the workplace software company Asana, warned against overreacting to bad press and ignoring technology’s obvious benefits. But he’s also restricting his own use of gadgets, turning off notifications on his phone and urging younger employees to be careful about chasing the "dopamine rush" that comes with spending time on social media and other apps. “It’s all these different things where you can indulge,” he says, echoing similar concerns raised by former Facebook President Sean Parker in an interview with Axios yesterday. “I try to be mindful.”
The longer-term question is whether the self-reflection is merely a response to the news cycle, or if there will be more substantive change. I asked the maker of a facial-recognition technology used by security companies what's the worst possible way the creation could be used. He outlined, with surprising honesty, how it could invade people's privacy or lead to false arrests. When I asked if that gave him reservations about selling the technology, he said somebody else would if he didn't.
“My experience with technology is people who do it have the greatest belief that the technology they are working on can change the world for the better,” said Mark Penn, the veteran political pollster who also spearheaded anti-Google campaigns while working at Microsoft Corp. “As you can see, they haven’t thought as much about how it can be twisted and used so quickly for other reasons.”– Adam Satariano
And here’s what you need to know in global technology:
Sean Parker has a "what have we done" moment: The former Facebook president said he didn't grasp the negative consequences the social network would have on society. Facebook uses engineering tricks to get people to spend more time with the service. "You're exploiting a vulnerability in human psychology," he said. The irony of his comments, given his sizeable wealth thanks to Facebook, wasn't lost on people
Bank of Amazon: The temporary head of the agency that oversees national banks said rules that separate commerce from banking should be reexamined. Such a change could open the way for Amazon and other tech giants to enter the market.
Twitter under fire again: The messaging network said it will change its verification procedures, calling them broken, after critics charged the process is viewed as a stamp of approval for white supremacists and others from the web's nether regions.
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