The Dominican priest Eric Salobir has founded an NGO called Optic Technology. This is “a platform for interdisciplinary reflection and dialogue on the challenges of technology,” which seeks to “anticipate” the impact of technology on society. Not by lobbying but by “putting all the facts on the table”. This NGO is behind “ethical recommendations for each major issue raised by innovations such as artificial intelligence, big data, blockchain, etc.,” with the aim of achieving “good regulations”.
In this context, an Optic Talk symposium was held on 14 May in Paris, addressing the topic of ‘rebuilding trust in technology’. Optic Technology believes that technology is “a solution for humanity” and not “a factor for complexity and distrust”. However, there is no point “reassuring people on the cheap by saying that everything is fine”. We need rather to “anticipate” and “create the conditions for a sometimes difficult dialogue between researchers in the hard sciences and the humanities”. Technology “is bringing about a new society and is simply a product” that must continue to serve human beings. “Technology is neither good, bad, nor neutral. It is ambivalent. It generates as many positive as negative externalities on society. Optic Technology is therefore developing ethics by design methods to support companies in managing their innovation“.
Le Figaro, Enguérand Renault (9/05/2019)