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NEW YORK – Technology companies that are increasingly concerned about social issues need to define the principles that drive them as they face regulatory compliance and customer trust issues
Brad Smith,
president of
Microsoft
Corp.
With technologies that use artificial intelligence, which can both benefit society or tear it apart, technology providers and companies that deploy their technology no longer have the luxury of staying passers-by, concentrated only on the best product.
"You have to know what you stand for," Smith said at an event organized by Thomson Reuters on Friday. "As a business, you must be sufficiently prepared to combine the courage of your beliefs with an absolute focus on business."
Microsoft's principles of transparency and confidentiality have sometimes led the company to adopt positions contrary to governments, Smith said.
Social and political issues are becoming increasingly important for technology companies as they shape perceptions of reputation and brand. "Large technology companies play a vital role in our modern economy and, as such, can not avoid becoming entangled in important social problems that are often not easy to answer",
Jonathan Gruber,
an economist from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said in a recent interview.
Smith said Microsoft would not allow any government to install wiretap equipment in any of its data centers. Business customers who store their data in the cloud of Microsoft retain the rights to this data, and the technology giant becomes the steward and protector of this information, he said. Microsoft has threatened to close data centers in undisclosed countries when such requests for surveillance are made. "Every time we have been pressured, governments have fallen back," he said.
Microsoft won a legal battle against the United States in 2016 when a federal appeals court ruled that the government could not force the company to transmit emails or other personal data stored on computers abroad. However, Congress passed a law in 2018 giving US investigators access to data stored on cloud servers abroad.
Microsoft is also taking a stand on AI-based face recognition systems, calling for government regulation of the technology. Laws can reduce prejudices and the risk of discrimination, he said.
Facial recognition can have significant societal benefits, he said, mentioning a non-profit group in Brazil that reconnects families with missing children with the help of facial recognition. "It's hard to innovate if you can not use something and learn if you can not innovate," he said.
The company will not sell facial recognition services for mass surveillance around the world, he said. Microsoft has denied a specific agreement for the widespread use of facial recognition in an undisclosed country, he said.
"We thought it might be used by a government to cool down freedom of expression and prevent people from coming together and demonstrating," Smith said.
Other Microsoft executives have also emphasized the need to help companies address ethical challenges, especially those related to AI. Last year, Microsoft created a position to help companies deploying AI to learn how to prioritize ethical principles, including fairness, accountability, and transparency, in the development of business. algorithms.
Smith, also a senior Microsoft legal advisor, joined the company in 1993. A book he co-authored "Tools and Weapons" was released this week. It discusses Microsoft's view of a range of societal issues that have become ubiquitous in the technology sector, including national surveillance, the role of technology in public safety, and the problems of rural communities without fast Internet connections. .
Write to Sara Castellanos at [email protected]
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