Tech’s wake up call: with great power comes great responsibility

By Dr Celine Herweijer, Partner PwC UK, Innovation and Sustainability Leader and Benjamin Combes, Assistant Director PwC UK

With great power comes great responsibility. This aptly describes where today’s tech giants find themselves.

The strains on today’s economic, and growth systems are intensifying including growing disparities in wealth and opportunity, and the rise of populist movements around the world. Technology is cutting across these effects. How could this shape the technology industry’s strategy for growth and development?

The sector is not only the largest in the world by market cap, but it’s global reach and powerful technologies have contributed to reshaping our societies and economies on a global scale. Innovation and growth must deliver equitably and technology offers huge opportunities if managed responsibly. CEOs, investors and governments alike are now starting to grapple with managing technology’s broader impact.

For many tech companies, this emerging focus on purpose, impact and trust is leading to a progressive re-focus in the way they see, and position, themselves in society. It’s no longer good enough for a firm’s purpose to be to share, connect, organise or improve customer experience. Attention is now is shifting to using the immense resources, innovation and talent available to have a positive impact on society; to meet society’s goals at large.

Many tech firms, founders and investors are already actively backing a range of ventures and projects to use technology to tackle some of the world’s biggest challenges: from climate change to inequality, and from ecosystem health to human health. But a commitment to maximise positive impact and minimise unintended consequences needs to become mainstreamed into business strategy, corporate culture and governance across the tech world.

Companies are increasingly engaging employees, investors, customers and the public more widely on these issues, whilst looking to have an open discussion with governments on regulation. The goal for tech, like for all industries today, needs to be to engage these stakeholders to shape a shared common purpose where economies – including the regulatory, incentive, and operating structures and businesses within them better deliver for society.

Why now?

A re-focus of purpose in tech has recently been accelerated by a range of interrelated factors.

First, the success, growth and increasing power of tech has naturally led to a focus on reputation. The short-term pursuit of growth at all costs is shifting towards responsible business growth.

Second the regulatory landscape for tech is changing fast in response to growing public and government concerns around issues including data collection and privacy, automation and jobs, cyber security, and more widely the mis-use of increasingly powerful technologies such as AI. Europe’s new GPDR regulation is already starting to reshape the privacy agenda around the world, and will likely raise the level of scrutiny and standard setting as regulators play catch up with recent technological advances.

Third, institutional investors and asset managers focused on the sector are increasingly prioritising businesses that make a positive contribution to society. The rapid rise of impact funds, responsible investing practices, impact focused shareholder resolutions, and pressure from investor-held board seats is evidence of this.

AI is particularly striking as perhaps the most powerful and pervasive emerging technology. Whist both big tech companies and nations themselves race for AI dominance, developing approaches to guide “safe” AI is arguably one of the biggest unsolved AI problems today. As AI acts increasingly more autonomously and becomes broader in its use, this will become even more critical. Risks include poor performance, bias, and malevolent use (e.g. autonomous weaponry), but also extends to macro impacts on society (e.g. rising job losses and inequality from automation). The development of AI systems with human, economic and environmental safety considerations at their core, and the required transparency and governance around this, will be critical.

What needs to be done?

There are three key ways tech firms can embed a wider societal purpose – contributing to the wider realignment of business, society and economies. First and foremost, by embedding purpose and responsibility into their corporate mission and growth strategy. At the operational level this includes integrating social, economic and environmental impact considerations into the development and deployment of all new technologies and solutions.

Second, by investing in innovation - whether through in-house R&D units, corporate venture capital, venture philanthropy, strategic partnerships or acquisition - that explicitly sets out to make a positive contribution to society. And third, by collaborating  with peers, clients, investors, academia, NGOs and governments, on the big unresolved issues of tech governance, ethics, transparency and safety. Governments have also announced plans to explore the ethical and social consideration of AI. The UK, for example, is building a new Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation, and French President Macron has placed Tech for Good at the heart of France’s national AI strategy.

A brave new world

The disruption of many traditional markets and industries by deep technology is already underway, reshaping the status quo for healthcare, finance, retail, energy, transport and industrial processes to name a few. As tech pioneers push the boundaries of these technologies with solutions that claim to make our lives easier, how can we avoid unintended consequences on our society and environment?

To harness the potential of tech for people and the planet, tech companies and governments alike need to champion a common purpose: a focus on Tech for Good. While technology is not inherently good or bad, we do have choices over how it is applied to meet people’s wants and needs. The concept of “Tech for good” – the responsible application of technology can increasingly provide a reference point for these choices.

To take AI as an example, we are already seeing applications geared to detect malnutrition in the world’s poorest regions; monitor and prevent deforestation; track and protect the health of our ocean ecosystems; and enable and optimise clean and decentralised energy grids. In our Harnessing AI for the Earth report we encountered over 80 use cases of how AI is being used to address key environmental challenges. And at the AI for Good Global Summit 2018 in Geneva this May, which PwC supported, it is clear that international organisations, governments, technologists and industry alike are beginning to realise the opportunity to harness tech like AI to accelerate progress towards the full range of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

This week, Berlin plays host again to the Global Solutions summit, feeding into the T20 Summit in Argentina,  when the top think tanks from G20 countries provide policy recommendations to major economy leaders ahead of the G20 summit in September. As a member of a T20 Taskforce on climate and infrastructure, our recommendation to the G20 is simple. Work closely with tech to ensure its innovations deliver a future which does not divide society but helps humanity in all respects –  our people and our planet.