The tech we use, and that is used on us, doesn’t fall from the sky. It’s shaped by humans, and then it shapes us.
On 18 October, the Human Technology Institute at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) was officially launched by the Hon. Ed Husic, Minister for Industry and Science in the presence of 180 guests and institute partners. The following is a speech from Professor Santow on why the HTI needs to build a future that applies human values to new technology.
Professor Edward Santow.
A decade ago, I was running the Public Interest Advocacy Centre. A kid asked us for help. Police officers were approaching him at school, in the street, and at home between midnight and 6am. They said they were ‘checking’ up on him. To our young client, this felt like harassment.
More kids followed. They weren’t hardened criminals. They were children – some as young as 12. They were frightened; humiliated.
Over time, we learnt that these children had been placed on the Suspect Target Management Plan. The NSW Police created this list using an algorithm trained on the state’s criminal justice database to identify kids at risk of crime.
At this point, we noticed something else: all these kids had dark skin. Not some; not most. Every single one. Parliament was later informed that more than half of the children on this list were Aboriginal, even though less than 3% of the state’s population is Indigenous.
The algorithm was reflecting the historical prejudice and injustice in our criminal justice system. Despite significant progress in addressing racist policing, this algorithm simply re-awakened the zombie of past discrimination.
Fast forward a few years. I’m inspecting Villawood immigration detention centre, in my role as Australia’s Human Rights Commissioner. In these inspections, I sat and listened to people detained for doing nothing worse than fleeing persecution in a distant land.
Ali was a man my age. Like me, he had two sons under five years old.
Where my life was a happy chaos of stories, tripping over toys, and walks to the park; he was alone in detention. Ali thought, sometimes constantly, about death. As the days, weeks, months, years wore on, his desperation grew.
I asked what sustained him, and he took out his smartphone. He used FaceTime to read his children bedtime stories. This made him feel more like a father; it kept alive a small glimmer of hope.
Humanity and technology
My point is that technology can help, and it can harm.
The tech we use, and that is used on us, doesn’t fall from the sky. It’s shaped byhumans, and then it shapes us.
Humans imagine exotic futures. Then, in buildings just like this, extraordinary researchers breathe life into those imaginings – making them real. So, it is that we’re experiencing astonishing progress in precision medicine, big data analysis and countless other areas. This makes our lives better.
But when technology fails, the most vulnerable people often suffer the worst harm. That was the experience of Robodebt.
The point of the Human Technology Institute
Technological progress should advance, not threaten, human rights. This is the Human Technology Institute’s reason for being.
We created the Institute, because we must urgently build the skills, tools and policy to give us a future we want and need, not the dystopia we fear.
This is a big challenge, and so we need the best people working together. That’s why we’ve gathered you: our academic colleagues at UTS and beyond; our partners from industry, civil society and government, and people we look forward to creating new connections with… not to mention our family and friends.
The Institute already has the nucleus of a crack team. Lauren Solomon, Linda Przhedetsky, Lauren Perry, Sophie Farthing, Nella Soeterboek and Neda Dowling bring deep expertise spanning tech policy, sociology, law, human rights, economics and communications.
My co-founder, Prof Nicholas Davis, is lauded globally for his pioneering work on the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Nick is trusted by leaders in industry, civil society and government, and he has a unique ability to bring diverse people together, getting them to coalesce around something bigger than narrow self-interest.