Guest post by The Futures Agency content curator Petervan

“Dear Tech…” is the opening sentence of a new IBM commercial, a video that pens an open letter to the tech industry. Obviously, this is a highly commercial – and at times a touch cheesy – production that comes laden with all of today’s buzzwords. We hear all about AI, Quantum Computing, Blockchain, and more. The video also seeds the ‘let’s make a difference' theme, pushing the initial IBM mantra ‘Think', the original slogan to which Steve Jobs responded with “Think Different” via Apple.

Setting aside that critique and reading between the lines, the video still has some strong memes baked-in which are quite relevant to our Digital Ethics conversation (be sure to subscribe to our newsletter here)

Take a look at the video below:

https://youtu.be/gNF8ObJR6K8?t=16

“Can we build AI without bias? Can we build AI that fights bias? AI that helps us see the bias in ourselves?”

“Let’s champion data rights as human rights.”

Companies like IBM, Google, and Alibaba have become super powerful. And of course… with great power comes great responsibility! The Open Letter format may be a good way for them – and us – to rally our tribes, companies, and institutions towards re-humanizing technology, to bring back “Humanity Inside” in everything we do and produce.

Disclosure: Gerd has performed speaking engagements for IBM

Here is a related video by Gerd on Power and Responsibility: