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SPOTLIGHT
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THE IT SOCIETY / Issue 02/2021
TECHNOLOGY:
To Trust or Not To Trust?
PROF LIM SUN SUN Fellow, SCS SG100WIT List 2020 Professor of Communication & Technology and Head of Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences, Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) Earliest Tech Experience: Bulletin board systems Just Binged: Chernobyl Currently Reading: New Laws of Robotics by Frank Pasquale An App You Can’t Live Without: Duolingo Last Googled: How to convert cup measures to grams (for use in a pizza recipe) Pet Topic: Social inequality Favourite Way to Relax: Running, finding hacks to simplify complex recipes
According to the latest Edelman Trust Barometer, global trust in technology fell to an all-time low in 2021. As users grapple with the pandemic, they also struggle with issues like data privacy and misinformation – ills seen to be exacerbated by ever advancing technologies. Can this relationship be salvaged, or is there going to be an ever widening rift between us and tech? SUTD Professor Lim Sun Sun shares her views with The IT Society. Q: Question, SS: Sun Sun Q: What accounts for the falling levels of trust users have towards tech? SS: In all systems – whether human or digital – we want to be assured that they are fair, ethical, transparent and reliable. The way technology has been used in recent years have called these points into question. Take digital rights of children for example. When children interact with devices, companies can track their preferences and use that data to market to them. In this case, data is exploited against children who are too young to understand their rights as individuals – creating ethical issues.
There’s also the problem of a lopsided power asymmetry between technology companies and end users. As Artificial Intelligence (AI) and technology become more complex, end users find it challenging to understand what exactly goes into the decisions being made and how to make the right decisions when interacting with them. Yet, there’s little expectation on companies to be transparent. It is this lack of transparency that causes doubts to creep in and undermine the level of trust. Q: How can we engender greater trust in AI and technology? SS: We are beginning to see some tech companies taking positive actions
to make their terms of use and privacy policies more accessible. While that’s a small step in the right direction, I think regulators should intervene and clearly enunciate the expectation of transparency and ethics companies must be held to. For example, regulators can impose requirements to have inhouse ethicists, who not only know the principles of ethics, but also advise on translating these principles into practice. This is where professional frameworks like the SCS AI Ethics and Governance Body of Knowledge also play an important role. Tangibly, the clear articulation of ethical guidelines and best practices helps companies improve
