Day 2: A BETTER TECH
Freada Kapor Klein (Top L), Irma Olguin Jr (Top R)and Allison Scott (Bottom)
Day 2 of A BETTER TECH is a wrap! Today’s program built on the keynotes, book talks, workshops and dialogues, and includes another series of keynote presentations as well as a series of shorter IDEAS presentations from over 30 presenters.
Yesterday we heard and learned from leaders from across the dynamic and emerging field of public interest technology, beginning with keynote words of encouragement from the White House Office of Science and Technology, and continuing with a panoply of workshops and dialogues, the kick-off our hackathon, keynote panels on public interest tech and philanthropy, and on the role of tech journalism in safeguarding the public interest.
Today also kicked off the CAREER FAIR component of A BETTER TECH, with dozens of universities and employers connecting with students via the Handshake platform
We began with a keynote panel discussion of the role that venture capital can play in supporting tech entrepreneurship in the public interest: Freada Kapor Klein (Kapor Capital), Irma Olguin Jr (Bitwise), and Allison Scott (Kapor Foundation) discussing venture capital and entrepreneurship.
At least since the late 60’s and early 70’s, the tech industry has been shaped by the mythologized figure of the entrepreneur as founder, visionary and genius. Much of the subsequent history of the field has included a narrative that has been described as ‘techno-utopian’, resting on the assumption that technology contributes positively to human understanding and well-being. From this perspective, while yes, technology can be put to nefarious purposes by bad actors, at root it serves the interests of the public. This narrative floats like a halo above the figure of the entrepreneur.
Still, the field of public interest technology is currently emerging around a widespread recognition that greater care needs to be taken with the design and development of digital technologies.
From this perspective, the burden of such care rests not only on the visionary founders, but also on the investors who provide financial support throughout the process of bringing technologies to market. Our panelists discussed these challenges in their talk which you can find on YouTube.
At the close of the day, post-career fair, we turned to industry and explored how companies can be places for building successful public interest technology careers. Who would be better suited to give us insight into this topic than one of the people who have built up the space of public interest technology from the ground up, cutting across disciplines: Dr. Rumman Chowdhury!
Dr. Chowdhury’s passion lies at the intersection of artificial intelligence and humanity. She is a pioneer in the field of applied algorithmic ethics, creating cutting-edge socio-technical solutions for ethical, explainable and transparent AI.
She is currently the Director of META (ML Ethics, Transparency, and Accountability) team at Twitter, leading a team of applied researchers and engineers to identify and mitigate algorithmic harms on the platform. Previously, she was CEO and founder of Parity, an enterprise algorithmic audit platform company. She formerly served as Global Lead for Responsible AI at Accenture Applied Intelligence.
Today, Dr. Chowdhury was in conversation with Lauryn Langster who is a current undergraduate student at New York University, where she studies Science and Technology Studies and Mechanical Engineering. She has experience in Business Development and Strategy Operation roles within the aerospace, defense, and telecommunications industry. Her interests are in ethical practices and D&I in the national security and aerospace industries.
Watch their conversation on YouTube.