Geneva, the future global hub of digital ethics
This autumn, the City of Calvin inaugurated the Swiss digital initiative bringing together the players that matter in the digital world. These participants have the daunting task of developing ethical principles applicable to the digital world in order to strengthen civil society’s confidence in new technologies and new practices. At the heart of this challenge, the data.
From the collection of personal data to their use by artificial intelligence, automation, cybercrime or “fake news”, there is no lack of ethical problems posed by the digitisation of society. This autumn, Geneva inaugurated the Swiss Digital Initiative. A foundation that brings together the gotha of technology and aims to develop guidelines, tools and mechanisms for the establishment of ethical standards in the fields of data processing and algorithmic processes. A whole program under the patronage of the Swiss Confederation, but to respond to what concrete challenges?
These have yet to be defined. In the immediate future, the Swiss digital initiative is committed to the adoption of ethical standards in the digital world through concrete projects. These will be unveiled at the next World Economic Forum (WEF) in January 2020 in Davos. The Swiss digital initiative is largely aimed at Swiss companies with a global presence. Participants include Adecco, Ringier, Siemens, the Polytechnic School of Lausanne and Zurich, Facebook, Kudelski, NZZ, Swissre, Swisscom, the University of Geneva, the United Nations… In short, the heavyweights of the Swiss economy. However, local and national SMEs are not excluded.
These participants have the daunting task of developing ethical principles applicable to the digital world in order to strengthen civil society’s confidence in new technologies and new practices. At the heart of these issues are the data. Indeed, algorithms that exploit big data offer a whole field of possibilities in various fields such as fundamental and applied research or medicine. But if their use is not regulated, it can have a negative impact on human rights (surveillance) for example. In order to develop the best practices of tomorrow, all participants in the Swiss digital initiative will have to sit around the table. At the heart of an increasingly fragmented, even nationalized web, does this initiative have any chance of reaching a the global level? It’s a big challenge.
