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EVENT DETAILS |
Participants can attend live event in NYC or via the video livestream in our private forum -- accessible via the web & mobile app. All participants will be given password access to the private forum for live chat with fellow attendees, the Q&A & two additional lessons that will be uploaded to the forum. Workshop limited to 50 attendees at live workshop in NY & 50 attendees for private livestream. Livestream video & workshop resources, exercises & discussion forum will be available up to 2 weeks after workshop.
Instructor: Oriana Medlicott (AI Ethics Strategist & Research Facilitator)
Guest Speaker: Ge Wang (Associate Professor at Stanford University in the Center for Computer Research in Music & Acoustics, author of Artful Design: Technology In Search of the Sublime (a comic book manifesto)
Overview
"There are no morals about technology at all. Technology expands our ways of thinking about things, expands our ways of doing things. If we're bad people we use technology for bad purposes & if we're good people we use it for good purposes." -- Herbert A. Simon
Instructor: Oriana Medlicott
Last year was a year of reckoning for big tech companies that faced fierce backlash from the media, researchers, legislators, consumers & even their own employees, over allegations of unethical practices.
Just the same, 2018 was the year that the general public finally learned (after 10 years of engaging on social platforms, carefree) just how much data, power & influence big tech companies have in all areas of society & our lives (business, politics, education, media, our most private moments) & just how little we know & understand about their intentions to monetize consumer data & the future they are creating with powerful AI technologies.
In a graphic timeline, NYU's AI Now Institute outlined the tumultuous year of ethics scandals that rocked big tech companies in 2018. This much is undeniable, there is a huge disconnect between the way CEOs of big tech companies view their ethical & moral obligations to their employees, shareholders, consumers & society at large, & what the general public thinks.
The moral compass of big tech companies is most often ingrained in their carefully worded manifesto. Tech company founders have long since embraced publishing corporate manifestos as a declaration of their intent, beliefs, morals, & ethical obligations -- it's their rallying cry to employees to build the company of the future, & their unwavering expression of loyalty to customers:
"A good corporate manifesto becomes a blueprint for exemplar attitudes & actions, & is a constant reminder of the need to walk the talk'. It makes it clear to everyone who you are, what you stand for, what you do & why you do it. Little wondermanifesto in Latin translates to clear & evident'... manifestos have energy, they make a declaration, take a stance, & stand for something important. Corporate manifestos are powerful!" -- Brand Council
Mark Zuckerberg's recently published manifesto, The Global Community (2017) was panned by almost everyone -- called a "blueprint for destroying journalism" & a "political train wreck" by journalists;
Apple's manifesto, Here's to the Crazy Ones (1997), crafted under the leadership of Steve Jobs, is now legendary & credited with inspiring a generation of technological innovation & changed our culture in countless ways;
Jeff Bezos' Day 1 manifesto (1997 ) is considered the seminal philosophy upon which he built Amazon's empire; and
Satya Nadella's "giant manifesto," emailed to Microsoft employees when he took over the reigns as CEO in 2014, was considered a shocking doctrine that demolished Microsoft's old way of thinking & introduced a radical blueprint for propelling the company into the future (Nadella's philosophy is credited with Microsoft's miraculous come-back).
Topics We Will Explore
If corporate manifestos are so effective, why are tech companies struggling so much with ethical scandals that are inflicting major damage on their business models, revenues & employee morale?
What do the manifestos of tech companies & their CEOs tell us about their moral philosophies?
How can we begin to become more knowledgeable about the intentions of tech companies (as outlined in their corporate manifestos & other doctrine) and, when necessary, hold them accountable for how they implement their vision & their missteps when they falter?
Are corporate manifestos of tech companies & their CEOs reflecting who we are today (in all of our diversity & complexities).
Are these manifestos reflecting where we want to go as a society in the future & are they taking into account the potentially negative impact their AI technologies might have on society despite their best, utopian intentions?
Guest Speaker: Ge Wang on the His New Comic Book Manifesto
Ge Wang
Ge Wang, Associate Professor at Stanford University in the Center for Computer Research in Music & Acoustics (CCRMA), will join us via video livestream in our private online forum (accessible via web & mobile app) to discuss his new, innovative book, Artful Design: Technology In Search of the Sublime (a comic book manifesto for these times), published in 2018. After giving a presentation about his book (which he is teaching as a course at Stanford University for the first time), Ge will do an interactive Q&A with attendees. Recent article about the book: Stanford polymath blazes a new trail with his design manifesto
About the Book: Artful Design - With the support of a Guggenheim Fellowship, Wang has spent the last three years creating a 488-page, full-color photo comic book about how humankind shapes technology and, in turn, how technology shapes humankind. Artful Design is meticulously designed in the medium of a photo comic. It is uncompromising (it requires some thinking) yet accessible (due to its unconventional visual format). A book about the soul of design, it is itself an artifact of design.
The world of Artful Design is revealed both conceptually & concretely through the design of musical instruments, mobile apps like Ocarina, games, toys, & social experiences. It contains over 100 principles of artful design, & "design etudes" (e.g., expressive exercises) for the reader to explore & enact in everyday life. Across its eight chapters, the book builds an overarching practical philosophy of artful design. Yup. This is a supremely nerdy book. "What we make, makes us." -- Ge Wang
Takeaways
Instructor, Oriana Medlicott (AI Ethics Strategist & Research Facilitator), will review the corporate manifestos of big tech companies including Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon, Mozilla & Google & several tech CEOs including Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Satya Nadella, Steve Jobs & Tim Cook & correlate them to philosophical schools of thought.
Learn the crucial elements of creating a successful corporate manifesto & why some manifestos miss the mark. Explore how the most powerful CEOs in the world communicate their philosophies to the world through their corporate manifestos, what those philosophies are & how they define product development & customer service. Create your own powerful manifesto.
There will be an exercise to be completed in our online forum during the workshop. Please bring a laptop or mobile device to access the internet. Online attendees will participate via the livestream in the forum.
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