美国国家公共电台 NPR Should This Exist? The Ethics Of New Technology

 

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

Tech companies decide to kill products and ideas for products all the time. Maybe it doesn't work; there's no market - whatever. But what about when the tech is too dangerous? That's what Caterina Fake wants Silicon¹ Valley to consider more often, the ethics² of new tech. She hosts the podcast "Should This Exist?" And she joins us now from San Francisco. Thanks so much for being on WEEKEND EDITION.

CATERINA FAKE: And thanks for having me.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: So you think about this all the time. But we thought about it because OpenAI, the research nonprofit, announced they weren't releasing a text generator³ they developed because they feared it could be misused⁴ to create fake news. Did that admission take you by surprise?

FAKE: Tech companies don't launch products all the time. But it's rare that they announce that they're not launching a product, which is what has happened here. And the announcement of not launching this product is basically to involve people in the conversation around what is and what is not dangerous tech.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: You are in Silicon Valley. You're the co-founder of Flickr. One of the things that always struck me was at the beginning, the conversation among developers there was always, like, we are doing this for the greater good. This is part of a good for society. Has that conversation changed?

FAKE: I think it has. For example, when we had first started Flickr, we kind of understood that what we were building was online community. Online community is something where you show up. You are yourself. You have to participate. And you have to negotiate the culture of the community in which you are participating.

In a social media platform, you are our so-called eyeballs. You are a product that is being sold to advertisers. It's a completely different dynamic. And when things switched from being very early on thought of as online community to being thought of as social media, the dynamics⁵ of the entire software changed.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: So in your podcast, "Should This Exist?," I mean, what kinds of questions are you grappling with right now? I'm sure you see things all the time that are being promoted, and you think nah, this isn't going...

FAKE: That should...

GARCIA-NAVARRO: ...To be a good.

FAKE: ...Not exist.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: That should not exist.

FAKE: (Laughter). I think it would be wonderful if I were the sole arbiter⁶ of what should and should not exist.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Me too.

FAKE: But really, we have been talking about this in the Valley forever. But it was not getting a lot of attention. And there was a kind of a catastrophic change that happened I think when, unexpectedly, to many of us, the 2016 elections had results that we did not anticipate for reasons that we could suddenly see.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: What do you say to people, though, who say that any product or platform can be misused and that it's impossible to plan for every eventuality?

FAKE: The important part of this is to acculturate people to asking these questions. And as we all know, millennials and Gen Z and the younger folk that are now, you know, kind of coming into their own, are much more thoughtful about, what are the values behind this product or this program? And what does it do to us?

For example, one of the last shows was about a product called Woebot. And what it is, it's an AI-driven bot therapist. And as we know, depression has increased, which has followed very closely the introduction of technology into our lives.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: There's studies that show that kids, specifically that are on a lot of technology and social media, feel more depressed⁷, more alienated⁸ from their peers, et cetera.

FAKE: Yes. And my initial impulse was, gosh, should we use technology to cure the problems of technology? That seems misguided. But by the end of thinking through some of the, you know, possibilities of this technology, I became convinced that, in fact, this was probably a good solution for it.

I feel as if technology can always be used for good, right? It has neutral valence. It is the way that humans use it and how we approach it and how we think about it. That is what is the most important part of technology and technology in our lives.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Caterina Fake is a co-founder of Flickr, a venture capitalist and a host of the podcast "Should This Exist?" Thank you so much.

FAKE: Thank you.

(SOUNDBITE OF MYLAB'S "FANCY PARTY CAKES")

1 silicon   

n.硅(旧名矽)

参考例句：

• This company pioneered the use of silicon chip.这家公司开创了使用硅片的方法。
• A chip is a piece of silicon about the size of a postage stamp.芯片就是一枚邮票大小的硅片。

2 ethics   

n.伦理学；伦理观，道德标准

参考例句：

• The ethics of his profession don't permit him to do that.他的职业道德不允许他那样做。
• Personal ethics and professional ethics sometimes conflict.个人道德和职业道德有时会相互抵触。

3 generator   

n.发电机，发生器

参考例句：

• All the while the giant generator poured out its power.巨大的发电机一刻不停地发出电力。
• This is an alternating current generator.这是一台交流发电机。

4 misused   

v.使用…不当( misuse的过去式和过去分词 )；把…派作不正当的用途；虐待；滥用

参考例句：

• He misused his dog shamefully. 他可耻地虐待自己的狗。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He had grossly misused his power. 他严重滥用职权。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 dynamics   

n.力学，动力学，动力，原动力；动态

参考例句：

• In order to succeed,you must master complicated knowledge of dynamics.要取得胜利，你必须掌握很复杂的动力学知识。
• Dynamics is a discipline that cannot be mastered without extensive practice.动力学是一门不做大量习题就不能掌握的学科。

6 arbiter   

n.仲裁人，公断人

参考例句：

• Andrew was the arbiter of the disagreement.安德鲁是那场纠纷的仲裁人。
• Experiment is the final arbiter in science.实验是科学的最后仲裁者。

7 depressed   

adj.沮丧的，抑郁的，不景气的，萧条的

参考例句：

• When he was depressed,he felt utterly divorced from reality.他心情沮丧时就感到完全脱离了现实。
• His mother was depressed by the sad news.这个坏消息使他的母亲意志消沉。

8 alienated   

adj.感到孤独的，不合群的v.使疏远( alienate的过去式和过去分词 )；使不友好；转让；让渡（财产等）

参考例句：

• His comments have alienated a lot of young voters. 他的言论使许多年轻选民离他而去。
• The Prime Minister's policy alienated many of her followers. 首相的政策使很多拥护她的人疏远了她。 来自《简明英汉词典》