Theo Schlossnagle on Software Ethics and the Presence of Doing Good

This week's podcast features a chat with Theo Scholossnagle. Theo is the CEO of Circonus and co-chairs the ACM Queue. In this podcast, Theo and Wes Reisz chat about the need for ethical software, and how we as technical leaders should be reasoning about the software we create. Theo says, "it's not about the absence of evil, it's about the presence of good." He challenges us to develop rigor around ethical decisions we make in software just as we do for areas like security. With the incredible implications of machine learning and AI in our future, this week's podcast touches on topics we should all consider in the systems we create. Why listen to this podcast: - The ubiquitous society impact of computers is surfacing the need for deeper conversations on software ethics. - Ethics are a set of constructs and constraints to help us reason about right and wrong. - Algorithmic interpretability of models can be difficult to reason about; however, accountability for algorithms can be enforced in other ways. - Questions to be considered when writing software should evolve into: What am I building, why am I building it, and who will it hurt? - Ethics in software will take industry reform, deeper conversations, and developing a culture of questioning the software we’re building More on this: Quick scan our curated show notes on InfoQ http://bit.ly/2BZAC4p You can also subscribe to the InfoQ newsletter to receive weekly updates on the hottest topics from professional software development. bit.ly/24x3IVq Subscribe: www.youtube.com/infoq Like InfoQ on Facebook: bit.ly/2jmlyG8 Follow on Twitter: twitter.com/InfoQ Follow on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/infoq Check the landing page on InfoQ: http://bit.ly/2BZAC4p