Humane use officers ensure AI stays ethical

I saw first-hand the potential of technology to create more inclusive and equitable societies

In the middle of the last decade, it became fashionable for large organisations to appoint a chief digital officer (CDO). Their main role was to develop and implement an organisation’s digital strategy, particularly when “digital transformation” became the buzzword.

That has also meant the role existed in a silo, requiring buy-in from other executives. Today, the CDO role has largely broken out of its silo as its purpose becomes part of every executive role in an enterprise. And that means it may eventually become a redundant role.

That is the precise trajectory we may well see for a new executive role that has emerged in recent years: chief humane use officer. It is easy to confuse it with animal welfare, which has long seen humane officers appointed in countries such as the US and Canada. But in this case it is all about building trust among people, in and outside an organisation. Do a search on the role, and only one name pops up from the business world: Paula Goldman, chief ethical and humane use officer at Salesforce. She was appointed to the role five years ago, when it simply did not exist.

Both Salesforce and Goldman were pioneers, anticipating an era when ethics would move front and centre of technology debates. Goldman told Business Times that Salesforce created the office of ethical and humane use in 2018 to pioneer trustworthy technology for the enterprise. “We recognised the ethical questions and complexities around companies’ use of technology and wanted to build an infrastructure for the responsible development and deployment of our technologies,” she said.

“Now, with the explosion of generative AI, tech ethics has become top of mind for almost every business. For Salesforce though, this work isn’t new. We’ve been building policies and processes to help guide responsible AI for nearly a decade.” That also meant it was not too difficult to define the role of a chief ethical and humane use officer, even five years ago, but it presented a fascinating challenge.

“There was no road map for this work when our office was founded, but to be successful we knew we had to lead with transparency and trust. A huge part of the job is being able to partner with stakeholders across the business. Every day, my team works with product managers and engineers, policy and government affairs teams, sales leaders and many other stakeholders to ensure that we’re leading with trust in every part of the business.”

After five years in the role, Goldman has built up a vast body of experience. But there was one lesson that stood out: “Technology is always changing, but the past five years have taught me that one thing remains consistent: ethical technology is as much about the people as it is about the technology. In many ways, my job is about changing culture — and empowering people to harness and use technology in responsible ways. At Salesforce, we believe trust and ethics are everyone’s responsibility.”

Goldman joined Salesforce from Omidyar Network, an “impact investment” firm established by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, legendary for its focus on inclusiveness. She had served as global lead for impact investing. “Working at Omidyar Network laid an incredible foundation for the work that I do at Salesforce,” she said.

“I got the opportunity to work with both tech start-ups and large companies, and invest in guardrails to ensure responsible technology. I saw first-hand the potential of technology to create more inclusive and equitable societies — but only if it’s developed with trust at the centre.”