Data, ethics, and law

- In analytics and artificial intelligence, it's pretty evident that they're powerful. They're means of amazing digital transformation. We have things like almost instant communication between people who are speaking different languages between people who are speaking different languages and self-driving cars coming to market, predictive healthcare. Almost every industry and vertical is being touched is being touched by this advancement by this advancement in data and technology. in data and technology. But in some ways it kind of begs the question of why ethics and law in relation to these powerful advancements, what does it bring to the table and what are students going to learn in this module? - That's a great question. Actually, typically when there's innovation, law and ethics are chasing after the innovation. There's a tension. - Yeah. - Law can never move as fast as business. Law can never move as fast as technology. And rather than wait for the law to eventually catch up, which it will, we can be prepared, right? we can be prepared, right? So there's a couple things happening here. I mean, we're looking at law, I mean, we're looking at law, and law and ethics, and law and ethics, the relationship the relationship between the two of them really are between the two of them, really, are that the law is going to be a moral minimum. that law is going to be a moral minimum. Ethics is always going to be a higher bar. And Nathan'll be providing ethical frameworks in this module for us. I'm going to be providing legal frameworks. And the point of learning those is to prepare students to prepare students to know what the law is, to know what the law is, what law does exist what law does exist, so that they can use it creatively and not be waiting for the hammer to fall necessarily. - Yeah, almost like a competitive advantage of some sort. - Yeah. - Yeah, it is a competitive advantage It is a competitive advantage. and we teach our students constantly We teach our students constantly that we're not talking about law and ethics about law and ethics so that they can feel constrained. so that they can feel constrained. We're teaching principles of law and ethics so that they can use that creatively. - Yeah. - Progressively, creatively, They progressively, creatively, innovatively, innovatively, and be prepared and ahead of the game, right, and be prepared and ahead of the game, right? so they can be competitive, strategic, and also at the same time be doing good. - Yeah. - Yeah. - Yeah, that's actually a great point, - That's actually a great point about getting out about getting out ahead of the technology. ahead of the technology. So that reminds me a lot, I mean, I mean, really what we're talking about now is design. really what we're talking about now is design, okay. So that reminds me of two of the best That reminds me of two of the best thinkers working thinkers working in the sustainability, in the sustainability, environmental sustainability space, environmental sustainability space, are McDonough are Braungart. They're more well-known for their books, The Upcycle and Cradle to Cradle, but they have an earlier academic paper where they make the case that our ecological crisis you know, our ecological crisis that we have right now, I mean, think about how much of a pain it is that we're trying to go around cleaning up problems, right? And they argue that back back when the Industrial Revolution started, when the Industrial Revolution started, there was evidence that it wasn't designed for sustainability, the Industrial Revolution wasn't, for sustainability, the Industrial Revolution wasn't, because no one had any idea that humans could damage the environment. It was like the environment is this big, huge thing big, huge thing that can just eat up human activity. that can just eat up human activity. Now, it turns out that prediction or that assumption was quite wrong. But the point is that the environmental crisis that we have now is because the Industrial Revolution happened the Industrial Revolution happened without anybody thinking about, without anybody thinking about, gee, do we need to think about sustainability? 'Cause no one did. They just assumed that, well, we can just do what we want, oh, we can just do what we want and Mother Nature will take care of the rest. and Mother Nature will take care of the rest. I'm kind of thinking that we're at a similar point now I'm kind of thinking that we're at a similar point now, within the digital space, within the digital space with big data. with big data. You know, we could imagine a time, We can imagine a time in a few years, a decade in a few years, a decade, where we're trying where we're trying to clean up little problems to clean up little problems with legal and ethical principles, but it would just be so much more elegant, so much better if we just thought about it the right way about it the right way from the beginning. from the beginning. - Thanks, Nathan, thanks, Eva, for your perspectives. I think what you're saying is critical and definitely why we're launching into this first module with foundations of ethics and law to get that competitive advantage of having those frameworks to get that competitive advantage of having those frameworks when we do this analytics or artificial intelligence work. artificial intelligence work. So thank you, and let's dig in.