History: elborate on responsibility

[amyjko]

An expansion on the question “what responsibility do software engineers have to avoid algorithmic bias?” may strengthen this article. The question immediately brought to mind how companies like IBM and Amazon have recently suspended/canceled facial recognition programs until stronger regulations are enacted (https://techcrunch.com/2020/07/03/we-need-a-new-field-of-ai-to-combat-racial-bias/ (Links to an external site.)). An additional section describing how the software engineering industry continues to face ethical challenges in how it builds new technologies may enrich a reader’s awareness of how intertwined technology, ethics, and policy truly are.

One controversy I would have liked to have been expanded more was the future and ethics of software becoming heavily integrated into our lives, but it was only briefly talked about in a paragraph. Questions from the article such as “If every part of society now runs on code, what responsibility do software engineers have to ensure that code is right? What responsibility do software engineers have to avoid algorithmic bias? If our cars are to soon drive us around, who’s responsible for the first death: the car, the driver, or the software engineers who built it, or the company that sold it?” Many issues such as the Boeing 737 Lion airplane crash, Trump’s condemnation of apps such as TikTok and WeChat, etc. are highly relevant now, and I think it’s something that should be explored at least a bit more.

In this chapter, the author discussed briefly the ethical role that software plays in society today (e.g. algorithmic bias and autonomous) and what responsibilities do software engineers need to have when building an algorithm that supports society. But I think that another important point that needs to be addressed in addition to the software engineers’ responsibilities is the responsibilities of the governments and lawmakers who can create regulations and guidelines that protect the users. I think it is also important to highlight that software engineers should work alongside lawmakers to critically ensure that the technology that they create cannot be used to harm others.