More than a thousand technology experts around the world, including Elon Musk and Steve Wozniak, recently made a public petition to temporarily suspend the advancement of artificial intelligence due to the risk posed by the lack of controls to limit its use. However, what should be the limit on AI, and what should be the limit on the use of technology to build companies?
In ancient Greece, rapid advances in medicine generated ethical challenges and the need to establish minimum standards for physicians. This led to the creation of the Hippocratic Oath, which remains a symbol of the ethical commitment of physicians around the world. The oath states that physicians must use medicine for good, make decisions under the highest ethical standards, and act with principles of dignity, respect, and honesty towards patients.
Today, rapid technological advances driven by startups that use technology to meet market needs raise significant ethical challenges, as in ancient Greece. There are many examples: developers’ biases and prejudices are reflected in codes and algorithms with unfair and discriminatory consequences in society. The collection of large amounts of personal data can seriously jeopardize the right to privacy of customers and users. The manipulation of information through algorithms can affect democracy and increase polarization with serious social consequences. Social networks are distorting social dynamics and significantly affecting the mental health of the population. The spread of fake news and images can further aggravate the crisis of social trust. The casualization of working conditions and the replacement of labor by technification can have serious social and economic consequences. And these are just a few examples.
Many people are clamoring for regulation: to regulate the publications that can be made on social networks, to regulate the work models of those who use the platforms to work, to regulate the use of GPT Chat in academia, and so on.
The problem is that every time a new startup is created, it not only contributes to solving a problem in a disruptive way but also has the potential to create new risks for humanity. Therefore, the list of topics that “should be regulated” grows exponentially.
The challenge is that even if we were able to regulate all the risks that exist today, technological innovation is advancing so rapidly that the regulation of those current risks would become obsolete tomorrow. Innovation advances by leaps and bounds, while the regulatory agenda moves at the pace allowed by bureaucracies.
Furthermore, there are “unknown unknowns”: uncertainties that generate alerts and worry us today because the incredible progress in technology could generate potential risks that we cannot even imagine. These unknown risks are impossible to regulate.
The demand for regulation is understandable, and it will eventually come because there is a need to define the limits of what is allowed or not. However, this will not happen at the pace required to keep up with the speed of technological innovation. We need to find ways to mitigate risks and promote responsible innovation, and regulation is not the ultimate solution; rather, self-regulation is needed.
The tech ecosystem must act quickly to establish its own boundaries and minimum ethical commitments, including accountability and transparency. We need a Hippocratic Oath for Founders, a commitment led by the leaders of the ecosystem to build and finance ethical companies that are aware of and accountable for the impacts and risks of their business.
It is not only about developing impact startups, but also about all startups defining an ethical, sustainable, and responsible basis for their operations, scaling strategis, product and service development, and attracting new customers and users. Founders, developers, investors, and other ecosystem players must be aware of the risks and negative impacts they generate and work together to address them responsibly and ethically as soon as possible.