[5] Ethical Musings
I’ve been doing a lot of reading over December and the Christmas break and when I review what I have read it all seems to converge around consciousness, how we think, the flawed assumptions of capitalism, AI and ethics. This was not an intentionally curated set of content, but it sort of took me on a journey of the human mind, how we have organised ourselves (in the west at least) and where we could possibly end up. As I sit down and reflect on what I have read it has helped consolidate my thinking slightly for my project (further thoughts below) and reinforces my beliefs that the current system is not good for anyone.
In addition to this I have been working with some industry colleagues to hold events and discuss data ethics in our field (Ecommerce). Some colleagues have started a new industry body called the Ethical Commerce Alliance designed to push the industry towards better privacy standards. It’s been really interesting to talk with them and I am getting involved in a few upcoming conferences. In the midst of all of this Shopify, a big Ecommerce software vendor, released a new feature called ‘Audiences’ designed for retailers to pool their customer data and share it with Meta and Google data to try and bypass the gap that is left from Apple users rejecting tracking. It shows that the industry is not thinking hard enough about how to meet consumers rising privacy concerns while still operating as a business. The driving business concern is the cost of acquisition has gone up due to higher advertising costs from poorer audience data, which isn’t the customers fault really its Google & Meta’s for not helping advertisers move towards more contextual advertising fast enough. I wonder how Google is going to balance their two positions as a browser/OS provider that will enable users to be more private with their role as a large advertiser.
Lastly, and very excitingly, the results of the 4-day week trial have been published and it is good news! Similar or higher levels of productivity, lower sick days, better staff retention and for some companies more profit. The problem of course is that it negatively impacts hourly-wage earners who don’t have this luxury. One of the factors in making this the norm will be to improve minimum wage or introduce a MIG or similar cash transfer program like UBI. Nonetheless, a monumental step forward. Now just to repair the fabric of society, climate change and our ageing population problem haha.
- Exclusion & Inequality /+ Postdigital Assignments – got my feedback, which was great! Really detailed compared to what I’m used to and will certainly help for the next time round. Not sure I will continue with alternative formats like I tried for Postdigital, I think it was more stress that it was worth. I’ll ask Tim what he thought though in terms of readability.
- Datafication, accountability and democracy post-intensive – Presented our group project, which came together really well. We focused on how Design Justice and AI Audits could compliment each other as providing a framework for how to monitor AI ethically. I then did a case study on GitHub’s autopilot, which I found really interesting. There was quite a lot I couldn’t cover due to the word count. Part of the unexplored was how we are starting to see an automation in the means of production in coding, which is part of how industries ‘mature’ in a capitalist model – the means of production gets automated and costs pushed down to make it more accessible and affordable. I wonder if we then start to see a decline in web standards and security as a result the same way we saw a decline in clothing quality as fast-fashion became possible.
- Interdisciplinary weeks 9&10 – the final presentation was fun and I enjoyed working with the group. I actually found the reflection essay easier than I thought I would – once I sat down to it I realised that I had some tendencies to think in a certain way that could introduce bias into my thinking. I then watched a TikTok from an anthropology student who spoke about how everyone has a bias in observations and part of ethnography was to think through what these might be (it was in the context of how ‘white people have no culture’ was actually a saying that perpetuated racism because it implied that observations by white people were non-biased and scientific, which is a huge problem when you look at even recent past ethnography work…I wish I had saved the video as it was so well explained!)
My reading over the last few month has helped me think a bit more about my second project option – UBI. I know that I’ve been interested in the variables that go into calculating UBI and how we account for the fact that some of the variables we make assumptions on will only hold true in our current system, not a future system. Some of my reading on AI and algorithms to deal with uncertainty have helped me think about how AI researchers are solving these problems, especially over lengthy event horizons. I wonder if there are some applicable models that I could start applying to UBI? I’m sure I’m not the only one thinking about this so I am going to be digging up the literature on the current and past pilots to look at how they have modelled their assumptions.
Secondly, what I’ve also been thinking about is the ethics of the variables. In our number normative society governments (and citizens) will want to prove that cash transfer programs are ‘worth it’ but that requires collecting data. How do we collectively decide what the outcomes of success are and how do we measure that in an ethical way? The idea of UBI of course is that it is non-means tested, so the theory is that it balances big government and small-government by high taxes but low invasiveness on having to submit your info to prove you are worthy of the cash. It does raise some other questions about people who don’t want to be in the ‘system’. I wonder if anyone has done a survey to see what data people would be willing to share in exchange for a non-means tested cash payment? Or what variables are considered success, not just affordability? UBI is a subject for the Inclusive Society course and I’m in that group so I will read all the material first and then use that to start digging further. I’ve committed to making a decision by end of February on this project or the PIP one.
Wow, Rhi, the Ethical Commerce Alliance sounds like a really neat (and much needed) initiative. And that Shopify anecdote is terrifying. Industry practice as it currently stands really seems to be asking government to step in and regulate. The allure of customer surveillance is just that addictive?
I’m also really interested in what your thoughts are now about UBI in light of discussions that happened in Inclusive Society. Have they changed since what you were grappling with back when you wrote this?
Hey Theresa 🙂 the ecommerce/retail industry certainly needs regulation or some sort of change in behaviour – sadly I think people forget that a ‘customer’ is not something you own as a business, it’s an actual human being with their own agency. We’ve all become so used to the masses of data it’s sort of desensitised us to how creep it is. Imagine if we went into a store and the sales rep followed you around making a note of everything you looked at and did, it would be super weird!
I certainly am still interested in UBI and the more I study the more convinced I am that we need a radical reshaping of our economies. Late stage capitalism just isn’t it and UBI seems like a good step towards helping people adjust to new possibilities. The Sandbox intensive was interesting because it opened me up to some ways of measuring positive impact without being invasive. The Scotcoin case study and their theories about it just being a push out was nice. It’s made me realise there are two parts to this: 1) what variables do we need to consider to decide it is an economically viable structure and what do we need to keep an eye to ensure it’s success (e.g. workforce participation, corp profits) and 2) what would ‘success’ mean and how do we know once we have reached it. It seems to be that neither of these data points to be at the individual level…still mulling but it’s getting there 🙂