Summary
IFTF’s Ethical OS Toolkit has been used by many organizations and agencies across the civic sector, including the California state legislature, the United States Conference of Mayors, and other local governments, to bring more foresight and long-term thinking to policy decisions about new technologies. In response to high demand from government entities, and with support from the Tingari-Silverton Foundation, the IFTF Governance Futures Lab has developed this Playbook for Ethical Tech Governance. Adapted from the original Ethical OS, the Playbook will equip civil servants with the skills and tools to proactively resolve ethical dilemmas emerging from the constantly evolving landscape of new technology and new social and political dynamics. It’s intended to help those working in government, or leaders in the public sector, to make better long-term decisions by increasing their foresight capacity, allowing them to develop future-facing regulatory structures that help them anticipate the worst consequences of technology before they happen. In this session, Ilana Lipsett will present Institute for the Future's Playbook for Ethical Tech Governance, a decision-making guide for governments and leaders who are charged with regulating change and mitigating risk, all while encouraging innovation. The guide was designed to help safeguard against both intended and unintended consequences of techno-social shifts. This session will include an overview of the Playbook, along with a live demo of how to apply these principles and put them into action using a Decision Tree worksheet that accompanies the guide.
Key Insights
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Technology and governance must integrate anticipatory practices to foresee ethical challenges.
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The internet's model as a self-regulating market is a failed experiment.
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Private interests dominate the perceived public spaces of social media.
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Future thinking enables us to imagine a wider range of potential outcomes from technology.
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Embedding safeguards in technology can prevent unintended consequences.
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Diverse stakeholder engagement is crucial for effective governance.
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Historical biases in futurism must be acknowledged and addressed.
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Citizens often turn to informal data sources during crises, highlighting gaps in trust.
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Decision trees help stakeholders visualize ethical dilemmas and their consequences.
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Regulatory responses must adapt to community-specific contexts and dynamics.
Notable Quotes
"We're interacting with a private commodity that owns all aspects of our participation in it."
"Technology generates as many new problems as new solutions."
"The internet as the self-regulating market is a failed experiment."
"If tech is not going to regulate itself, what we need is anticipatory governance."
"Nothing is impossible to imagine."
"When something of massive consequence happens that no one predicted, we often say it was simply unimaginable."
"It's not about predicting the future; it's about understanding the changes happening today."
"We have to expand our imaginations and point them in the right direction."
"We need as many tools as we can to help us stretch our imagination."
"The idea is to get to that no brainer without having to learn the hard way."
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