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Accenture states that responsible AI is the practice of designing, building, and deploying AI in a way that empowers employees and businesses and fairly impacts customers and society. Responsible tech is the application of ethical thinking to the practical concerns of technology. The reason for the growth in the prominence of tech ethics is that new technologies give us more power to act, implying that we have to make choices today that we didn’t have to make before.

Technology enables us to be more responsive to change as it happens, providing us with timely data and insight into mankind’s many interactions with the natural world and its effects. And technology is also demanding of us that we be more responsible in managing this planet and its resources, touts David Craig. Asserting that responsible tech builds a better future for everyone is important, especially for government and business leaders.

To begin with, technology is a necessary part of life for all of us, governments, individuals, and businesses. As governments and business leaders, it can sometimes be difficult to align with the constantly evolving new developments in tech that attract our citizens and teams. While we may not always be able to be in alignment with all the latest things, we can leverage a framework for our countries and businesses so that the citizenry and teams can develop a healthy and safe relationship with tech. How does your country or company want to be seen now and in the future?

On another note, several tech startups are sprouting with new trends offering better efficiency and effectiveness. Startup leaders need to embrace responsible tech. They must be visible role models, clearly communicate ethical expectations, offer training on best practices, openly reward good ethics, and punish unethical acts within their organization. These cascade the responsible tech wave quicker to more people as the US tech industry alone is responsible for employing roughly 12.2 million workers as of 2020, just as data from the US Census Bureau shows that an average of 4.4 million businesses are started yearly.

Furthermore, Accenture studied 17,500 customers worldwide, covering 19 countries from August to September 2022. The responses from the extensive work offered insights for delivering responsible innovation in the metaverse, founded on eight dimensions that are basic to building both trusted and human-centered experiences. The top three discoveries are 1. Respondents indicated that safety, security, and privacy were the most important elements; 2. The metaverse is at a fork in the road regarding trust; and 3. The ethos of crypto (like decentralization and transparency) is not the driver of consumer interest in cryptocurrencies and NFTs but potential financial value. All the afore point to the fact that tech drivers need to pay some attention to building right, so the metaverse is an additional layer that enriches life.

Moreover, responsible tech organizations need to engage the social space more than simply filling chief ethics officer roles. Tech organizations must be at the fore of organizing, standardizing, and offering incentives to see things done right. The consistent habit of always doing the right thing should be rooted in time-tested values that drive behaviors, patterns, and decision muscles. Also, that informs why tech leaders should invest in software tools that allow easier collaboration from the project initiation stage. Starting these engagements earlier during the ideation stage offers the hope of a more sustainable solution that is well thought through and safe for all.

In addition, it is pertinent to create products that make society better. Responsible tech aligns technology and business activities with societal, environmental, and individual interests. It examines sustainability from the big-picture perspective, capturing social and environmental topics. It looks into the values, not-so-obvious challenges, and impacts of tech to manage and lower risk and possible harm. A holistic approach that considers everyone makes a more usable product. To realize this, leaders must ensure the right people are on the work team, and it all rests on time-tested values for every stakeholder to win. Another crucial design requirement is considering the possible technology’s adverse effects. This helps us propose and even build support solutions to mitigate such. Leaders also need to reduce risk and probable hazards actively. Lastly, being tech-responsible implies that we remain accountable.

Furthermore, government leaders are to champion the ethical drive while providing education on safe use. This, in turn, helps citizens hold their responsible tech leaders to account in an era where most people are ignoring ethical tech usage. Moreover, it is important to provide trustworthy and human-centered leadership. If you don’t love them, you can’t lead them, posits the sage, Cornel West. The internet has changed everything about how we interact with work and life, both in strategic and general ways, and not all for the better. When the internet began, trust and safety were not on the front burner, and individuals, companies, and governments have long been striving to address cybersecurity and safety issues, to mention but a few. And often, many of these people were not a part of the creation process. Imagine a situation where 236.1 million ransomware attacks occurred globally in the first half of 2022; 1 in 2 American internet users had their accounts breached in 2021; and 39% of UK businesses reported a cyber attack in 2022.

In the context of social responsibility, business startups must engage with tact, despite the temptation to change the world on their own. Dr. Maxwell has said that individuals win medals while teams win trophies. The fact is that going solo is not only unrealistic but can constrain the ability to make a significant difference. Most startups rarely allocate resources to social responsibility. Whereas by connecting charities, organizations that are already contributing can support those you want to help, thereby making a big difference by using your additional operational skills, communication, and organizational savvy to complete what is lacking.

World leaders need to start focusing on responsible tech. They must uphold the four principles of technology ethics, which are 1. Positive contribution to society and human well-being; 2. Avoiding harm to others; 3. Being honest and trustworthy as much as possible; and 4. Being fair and taking action rather than discriminating. Leading tech organizations must not just be a matter of finding someone who can write code or manage people. The right person has to have a vision: What do they want the organization to become? Whom are they trying to serve? What problem do they want to solve? And how will they achieve that vision by putting ethical practices on the front burner?

Truly, we can’t lead people if we don’t love them. Caring for people makes them want to apply their imagination and ingenuity to the country or organization. To unlock their people’s full potential, leading organizations will have to democratize access to intelligent technologies and human capabilities across all levels of the organization. Clarence Francis has said that you cannot buy loyalty; you cannot buy the devotion of hearts, minds, and souls. You have to earn these things. When people can access powerful technology and know how to use it (say, to automate part of their jobs), they can focus their creativity on more positive things like unlocking innovation by accelerating digital transformation.

Lastly, Governments must formulate and implement laws prohibiting unethical tech use and practices with the citizenry and in organizations. The rules guide everyone to focus on accepted ethical practices. The governments must also monitor to ensure people are not engaging in unethical practices. Tech and its attending challenges have become a major part of our lives. We must continue to engage until it delivers a safe and secure society that supports our humanity which is a collective responsibility.

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