Problematic Reports from the Frontlines of Tech

While the tightrope of technological advancement is proving quite difficult to navigate, experts from the frontlines of the tech industry are here to offer insights on how we can move forward as a society. First, we must look critically to the scars etched by generations of systemic segregation, as journalist Alexis Madrigal does in The Pacific Circuit, using vibrant and untold stories from the city of Oakland as a backdrop to reveal how our markets and our world really function. Vulnerable communities are hurt most by big tech, and former Facebook lead attorney Bärí Williams recounts balancing on glass cliffs while battling the burnout that so often forces out Black women in her book Seen Yet Unseen, which demonstrates how the industry’s lack of Black women not only harms the businesses themselves but has troubling ramifications for their products. The mental health community is also particularly at risk, and science writer Daniel Oberhaus’ The Silicon Shrink  tells the inside story of how the quest to use AI in psychiatry has created the conditions to turn the world into an asylum by applying deeply flawed psychiatric models of mental disorder at unprecedented scale. The cost of moving quickly in tech is falling victim to its deception. In Terms of Servitude, Omar Zahzah examines the paradox whereby Big Tech companies and prominent digital platforms that initially facilitated the expression of activism and advocacy for Palestinian liberation have come to fortify Zionist settler-colonialism through censorship and erasure often justified by so-called “terms of service” violations. Join us in this panel, moderated by CalMatters tech reporter Khari Johnson, amplifying counter-narratives in tech.