Make dorm-room innovation help society
Technological advancements can be used for good or bad, Kevin Kee writes.
Facebook’s celebrated motto to “move fast and break things” has recently taken on a whole new meaning. Mark Zuckerberg moved too quickly, and broke democracy. Zuckerberg ’s “dorm-room defence,” which he repeated throughout his two days before the United States Senate in April, was that he should not be held accountable for decisions made in 2003 when he was a callow 18-year-old freshman, launching his company from his Harvard College residence room. In an attempt to fix that which he has broken, he reportedly spent the summer in dinner meetings with professors discussing such issues as free speech and propaganda. We are witnessing the education of Mark Zuckerberg, 15 years late. For those of us who work at universities, Zuckerberg ’s “dorm-room defence” and his “return to school” prompt a question: What might we do today, at the dawn of the Artificial Intelligence Age, so that universities are incubators for thoughtful, humane technological innovation? To put it differently, what is our responsibility to the next generation of entrepreneurs, studying in our classes and launching companies in their dormitories, and to all those who will be affected by their inventions?
The answer is to support robust connections across that which has been kept separate: the study of cultural literacy (ways of understanding individuals and societies), technological literacy (especially how to chart our course through a seemingly limitless ocean of data), and entrepreneurial literacy (that is both ethical and profitable).
At my institution, the University of Ottawa, we are now bridging three faculty structures: arts, engineering and business. Among the many lessons that students can learn is one that Zuckerberg missed in 2003: that new technological innovations can be used for good, but just as easily for ill.
Our students are learning to use the vast ocean of data now available, and, just as importantly, when to destroy data to ensure the privacy of individuals. In addition, they are studying and then experimenting with algorithms that make that data useful. Programmers’ assumptions and decisions determine what an algorithm does. In the near future, algorithms may determine who goes to prison, or who receives an expensive medical treatment. We want all today’s students — including tomorrow’s programmers — to appreciate what is at stake.
Our students are also learning that business models for new technologies must not only seek a profit, but also respect customers as citizens in an increasingly linked global society. By his own account, Zuckerberg gave little thought in his dorm room to how his social network would make money. But when he applied an advertising model years later, Facebook’s customers became Facebook’s product; decision-making (especially related to privacy) followed accordingly. Students must learn that any business model for new A.I. technology developed in Canada, for example, will have to respect privacy laws in China, and vice versa.
What does this new form of integrated learning look like in the 21st-century physical and virtual classroom? Last year, I taught a course in which graduating students wrestled with the legacy of Zuckerberg ’s dorm-room decisions, and answered a question of fundamental importance: How could they successfully transition from university to the work world, when every questionable decision they had made could be examined by potential employers? Under the banner of “connecting,” Zuckerberg and his shareholders have recorded and sold this generation’s coming of age, including their occasional mistakes (an embarrassing photo posted on a Saturday at 3 a.m., for example). Integrating our separate campus structures should help to ensure that the next dorm-room innovation will benefit society. For the last 15 years, university dropouts such as Zuckerberg have served as “Exhibit A” for those questioning the value of a comprehensive university education. By building bridges among the study of people, technology and business, today’s universities can help the next generation of innovators, currently working away in dorm rooms, to get it right the first time.
Kevin Kee is dean of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Ottawa.