Good Code

Good Code is a weekly podcast on ethics in our digital world. We look at ways in which our increasingly digital societies could go terribly wrong, and we speak with those trying to prevent that. If you like TV shows, think of it as Black Mirror meets The Good Place: Dystopian scenarios, with a way out. Good Code is a collaboration of Cornell Tech's Digital Life Initiative and visiting journalist Chine Labbe.

Camille Francois on Disinformation Campaigns 03/10/2020

Camille Francois on Disinformation Campaigns How do foreign actors spread disinformation online? What have we learned from the campaign of Russian meddling into the 2016 US Presidential elections, and are we ready for what’s coming in 2020? Our guest this week is Camille Francois, Chief Innovation Officer at Graphika, a network analysis company studying the spread of disinformation online. She explains how Russian trolls have been trying to sow chaos in the US since 2014, and she details the new threats she's seen emerge in recent years. /episode/index/show/goodcodepodcast/id/13470014

Alexis Wichowski on Net States 03/03/2020

Alexis Wichowski on Net States Big Tech companies have grown beyond their core products and services — influencing not only our digital lives, but our physical lives, and working in territory that used to be government turf: counterterrorism, space exploration, electricity, agriculture. Alexis Wichowski, deputy chief technology officer for the City of New York, warns that we should not accept lightly that these new giants provide our electricity or other essential services. Even if they are more efficient than governments. /episode/index/show/goodcodepodcast/id/13382360

Yaël Eisenstat on Facebook and Political Ads 02/18/2020

Yaël Eisenstat on Facebook and Political Ads Last October, Facebook announced that it would not fact-check political ads. And that decision angered a lot of people: outside, but also inside the company. To talk about Facebook's policy, and the potential risks of such a decision ahead of the 2020 presidential election, we sit down with Yaël Eisenstat. She's a former CIA officer and national security advisor to Vice-President Joe Biden. And in 2018, she served as Facebook's Head of Global Elections Integrity Operations for six months. /episode/index/show/goodcodepodcast/id/13162130

Jake Goldenfein on Google Scholar 02/11/2020

Jake Goldenfein on Google Scholar From Gmail and Google Documents to Google’s Cloud, our reliance on Google services has extended to more and more realms of our lives. And academia is not immune from this growing dependency. Our guest this week is Jake Goldenfein, a Postdoctoral fellow at the Digital Life Initiative. His most recent piece of research looks at Google Scholar, a free web search engine that indexes scholarly work. And it asks: should we feel that comfortable using yet another Google service as if it was a disinterested actor /episode/index/show/goodcodepodcast/id/13028585

Lisa Lewin on Making Boards of Directors Care 02/04/2020

Lisa Lewin on Making Boards of Directors Care What can board of directors of big tech companies do to push for more ethical practices in the field? Lisa Lewin is the managing partner at Ethical Ventures, a management consulting firm. Because the problem of ethics in tech is so monumental, she thinks we need to include all stakeholders in finding a solution. From tech workers and consumers to boards of directors. Why them? Because they get a unique access to these companies' CEOs. Mandatory face-to-face time that can make a real difference. /episode/index/show/goodcodepodcast/id/12910460

Daniel Kelley on Harassment in Online Gaming 01/28/2020

Daniel Kelley on Harassment in Online Gaming Over two billion people play games globally. And live, multi-players games are more than just games: they are social platforms, where people interact, chat, and get harassed. Daniel Kelley is the associate director of the Center for Technology and Society at the Anti-Defamation League. He leads the center’s work to fight hate, bias and harassment in online gaming. And he explains why games should be considered as social spaces, and toughen their moderation and harassment policies. /episode/index/show/goodcodepodcast/id/12808742

Judith Duportail on Tinder's Algorithm 01/21/2020

Judith Duportail on Tinder's Algorithm How do we love online? What does dating and love look like in an era dominated by swipes, likes and matches ? In may ways, online dating has become the new norm. And Tinder, our new reality. Judith Duportail, a French journalist and Tinder user, spent two years investigating the app: its algorithm, its patent, and the data it had accumulated on her. She tells us what this investigation taught her about herself, the future of dating, and the company's philosophy. /episode/index/show/goodcodepodcast/id/12723899

Tracy Dennis-Tiwary on Screens and Relationships 01/14/2020

Tracy Dennis-Tiwary on Screens and Relationships What is screen time doing to our relationships? More specifically, what is us being on our screens so much, doing to our kids? What happens when mothers, fathers, caregivers disappear into their phones in front of infants and toddlers? Tracy Dennis-Tiwary is a Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at the City University of New York, and she has conducted a study to find out. We talk about her research on technology and mental health, and she warns against always blaming the technology. /episode/index/show/goodcodepodcast/id/12430319

The Tech Worker Uprising 01/07/2020

The Tech Worker Uprising In 2018 and 2019, tech workers stood up, pushed back and said no, to projects, and working environments they disagreed with. At Amazon, Google, Microsoft: they said no to government contracts, no to sexual harassment. Are we witnessing a revolution? A unique movement led by a new generation of data scientists with a strong conscience? We explore this question with Guillaume Chaslot, who worked on YouTube's controversial recommendation algorithm, and with computer science PhD students. /episode/index/show/goodcodepodcast/id/12429134

Cara LaPointe on The Ethics of Blockchain 12/24/2019

Cara LaPointe on The Ethics of Blockchain Ever wished you found the perfect Blockchain 101 presentation? Well this episode’s for you. Cara LaPointe is a non-resident fellow at the Beeck Center for Social Impact and Innovation at Georgetown University. And she's created the “Blockchain Ethical Design Framework," to help entrepreneurs develop socially responsible blockchain technologies. What is Blockchain? Is it really the truth technology? LaPointe answers all the questions you might have on this hot new technology. /episode/index/show/goodcodepodcast/id/12428711

Shiri Azenkot on Accessible Virtual Realities 12/17/2019

Shiri Azenkot on Accessible Virtual Realities How can we make virtual, augmented and mixed realities accessible to all, including people with disabilities? That's a question that's been on Shiri Azenkot's mind for years now. She's an Assistant Professor of Information Science at the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute at Cornell Tech, and her research focuses on accessible technology. She explains why accessibility is important to her, and why she believes that XR is a promising technology in that regard. /episode/index/show/goodcodepodcast/id/12343001

Desmond Patton on Social Media and Gang Violence 12/10/2019

Desmond Patton on Social Media and Gang Violence Young people spend a lot of time on social media, where they express happiness, pain, trauma, grief and anger. What do social media really say about them? To what extent do they facilitate violence? Our guest is Desmond Patton, an Associate Professor of Social Work at Columbia University. His research examines the ways in which young people of color experience violence online, and offline. He explains why we need to work within communities to best interpret social media posts. /episode/index/show/goodcodepodcast/id/12342128

The UN on Humanitarian Data 12/03/2019

The UN on Humanitarian Data In the quiet city of The Hague, in the Netherlands, is the United Nations Centre for Humanitarian Data. It's not a traditional data center: there is no data storage here. Think of it as an innovation hub. Its goal is to increase the use and impact of data in humanitarian crises. Our host Chine Labbe visited the Centre over the summer. Follow her as she takes a tour of the place, and speaks with several of its members. /episode/index/show/goodcodepodcast/id/12231371

Niva Elkin-Koren on Content Moderation 11/26/2019

Niva Elkin-Koren on Content Moderation What is being filtered out of our online platforms? What don't we get to see? That's a question that our guest worries about a lot. Niva Elkin-Koren is a Professor of Law at the University of Haifa, in Israel, and her research looks at the ways in which big tech companies (Google, Facebook, Twitter) are acting as "guardians of the public sphere", through content moderation. We ask her why she thinks that private filtering poses a democratic problem, and we discuss her proposal for a "Public AI." /episode/index/show/goodcodepodcast/id/12161678

Gilles de Kerchove on 5G 11/19/2019

Gilles de Kerchove on 5G 5G is coming. With increasing speed and decreased latency, it will power a vast array of new services. And with new possibilities will come new vulnerabilities. Tech companies and governments around the world worry about the security of 5G networks. So does our guest Gilles de Kerchove, the European Union Counter-Terrorism Coordinator. But he also worries that in the era of 5G, it could become harder and harder, if not impossible, for law enforcement agencies to do their job, and prevent attacks. /episode/index/show/goodcodepodcast/id/12086552

Season 1 Summary 10/22/2019

Season 1 Summary Season 1 wrapped up in late June. Over the summer, we worked hard on new content, and we’re very excited about what’s coming. So stay tuned… But before we dive into Season 2, we wanted to look back on our inaugural Season, and take a minute to thank all the terrific researchers, academics and professionals who trusted us with their time, when Good Code was still a baby podcast. Here is a compilation of some of their comments, I hope you’ll enjoy it. And come back soon, for Season 2! /episode/index/show/goodcodepodcast/id/11723960

Diana Freed on Technology-Enabled Domestic Violence 06/25/2019

Diana Freed on Technology-Enabled Domestic Violence In this episode, the last of season 1, we speak with Diana Freed. She’s a PhD student at Cornell Tech, and part of a group of researchers working on technology-enabled intimate partner violence. How do abusers exploit technology to harass their victims? How can we improve their digital safety? Freed meets with survivors of domestic violence every week in clinics throughout New York City to help them mitigate this type of abuse. Listen on as she explains her work. /episode/index/show/goodcodepodcast/id/10258535

Salam Shahin on Refugees and Technology 06/20/2019

Salam Shahin on Refugees and Technology In this episode, released on World Refugee Day, we talk about the ways in which digital technologies can be used to improve the lives of refugees, and we explore some of their inherent risks. More than 70 million people were displaced at the end of 2018, the highest level in almost 70 years. Our guest Salam Shahin, senior business analyst at UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, walks us through some of the most promising technological developments for refugees. /episode/index/show/goodcodepodcast/id/10212638

Jamie Metzl on Genetic Engineering 06/11/2019

Jamie Metzl on Genetic Engineering In this episode, we talk about genetic engineering and the future of our species as we enter these uncharted territories. Our guest is Jamie Metzl, a technology futurist and Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council. In his latest book, Hacking Darwin : Genetic Revolution and the Future of Humanity, he explores all the ways in which the Human-led rewriting of our genetic code is about to shake the very foundation of our Humanity. Sit back and listen on! /episode/index/show/goodcodepodcast/id/10119789

Isabelle Zaugg on Digitally Disadvantaged Languages 06/04/2019

Isabelle Zaugg on Digitally Disadvantaged Languages In this episode, we speak with Isabelle Zaugg, a postdoctoral researcher at Columbia University. She studies minority languages, and the ways in which digital technologies can contribute to their decline and even extinction. What are digitally disadvantaged languages? Why should we care about rare languages not getting the support they need to thrive online? And what can be done to bring them to digital vitality? Zaugg walks us through what's at stake when languages do not enjoy digital support. /episode/index/show/goodcodepodcast/id/10020302

Ifeoma Ajunwa on Quantifying Workers 05/28/2019

Ifeoma Ajunwa on Quantifying Workers Throughout History, workers have always been quantified: from the time they spent at work, to their productivity, while on the job. But digital technologies have brought this process to a whole new level. The hiring process itself is now determined in large part by algorithms. Our guest this week is Ifeoma Ajunwa, an Assistant Professor at Cornell University’s Industrial and Labor Relations School. Her forthcoming book is called The Quantified Worker. /episode/index/show/goodcodepodcast/id/9942020

Jessica Vitak on Digital Personal Assistants 05/21/2019

Jessica Vitak on Digital Personal Assistants The Internet of Things is making its way into our workplaces, our cars, our homes. Everything is getting "smarter" around us. And many of us are turning to digital personal assistants to help with mundane tasks, such as finding recipes and playing music. But as we engage intimately with these new members of our lives, we should not forget that they are listening devices, says our guest Jessica Vitak, an Assistant Professor in the College of Information Studies at the University of Maryland. /episode/index/show/goodcodepodcast/id/9831098

David Robinson on Algorithms in the Courtoom 05/14/2019

David Robinson on Algorithms in the Courtoom In this episode, we speak with David Robinson, the managing director and cofounder of Upturn, a nonprofit promoting "equity and justice" in digital technology. He is currently on leave from Upturn, and a visiting scientist in the AI policy and practice initiative at Cornell University. We ask him about algorithms in the criminal justice system, from predictive policing to pre-trial risk assessment tools. Can they help build a fairer system ? Are they projecting bias ? Listen on! /episode/index/show/goodcodepodcast/id/9766901

Julia Powles on Scrutinizing Big Tech 05/07/2019

Julia Powles on Scrutinizing Big Tech In this episode, we speak with Julia Powles, an Associate Professor of Law at the University of Western Australia, in Perth. We ask her about our society’s tendency to be beguiled by these companies; we discuss the reasons why governments and public institutions, in the US, but also in Canada and the UK have signed contracts favorable to these giants without asking much in return; and Powles calls for more innovative regulation. /episode/index/show/goodcodepodcast/id/9645836

Solon Barocas on Teaching Ethics in Data Science 04/30/2019

Solon Barocas on Teaching Ethics in Data Science In this episode, we speak with Solon Barocas, an Assistant Professor in Information Science at Cornell University. We ask him about a class on ethics in data science he has designed for aspiring computer scientists. How do you best infuse a culture of ethics in the field? It’s important to make sure that students know to reject certain applications of machine learning, Barocas says. But it's not enough to then expect them to go and change the world, he warns. /episode/index/show/goodcodepodcast/id/9562532

Timnit Gebru on the limits of Artificial Intelligence 04/23/2019

Timnit Gebru on the limits of Artificial Intelligence In this episode, we speak with Timnit Gebru, a research scientist in the Ethical Artificial Intelligence team at Google AI. We talk about algorithmic biases, and Gebru explains why she created the group "Black in AI", to address the lack of diversity in the field. She calls for a standardization of algorithms, and cautions against focusing on making them more fair, without thinking about whether they should exist in the first place. /episode/index/show/goodcodepodcast/id/9458129

Deborah Estrin on Small Data 04/16/2019

Deborah Estrin on Small Data In this episode, we speak with Deborah Estrin. She’s a professor of Computer Science and an Associate Dean at Cornell Tech. She works on "small data" : the individual traces we leave behind us online. How can these seemingly uninteresting digital "breadcrumbs" help us improve our health? And how can we use them without sacrificing our privacy? We discuss participatory mobile health, we talk about our digital dependencies, and we ask Estrin about the "Genius Grant" she's received last year. /episode/index/show/goodcodepodcast/id/9299399

Ellen Goodman on Smart Cities 04/09/2019

Ellen Goodman on Smart Cities In this episode, we speak with Ellen Goodman. She’s the co-director of the Rutgers Institute for Information Policy and Law, in Camden, New Jersey. And at the moment, she’s conducting research on Smart Cities. What’s the future of our urban lives? Should we be excited about it, or resist it? We discuss the texture of life in cities built from the Internet up, and we talk about Sidewalk Toronto, one of the hottest smart city projects at the moment. /episode/index/show/goodcodepodcast/id/9281459

Peter Asaro on Killer Robots 04/02/2019

Peter Asaro on Killer Robots In this episode, we speak with Peter Asaro. He’s a Philosopher and the vice-chair and co-founder of the International Committee for Robot Arms Control. There, he is lobbying for an international ban on lethal autonomous weapon systems, or killer robots. Are they science fiction? What are some of the technical, legal and moral issues they raise? Listen as our guest helps us navigate these complex questions. /episode/index/show/goodcodepodcast/id/9191567

Luke Stark on Emotions in the Digital Realm 03/26/2019

Luke Stark on Emotions in the Digital Realm In this episode, we speak with Luke Stark. He's a postdoctoral researcher at Microsoft Research Montreal, and a Historian of Computing and Artificial Intelligence. He looks at ways in which Humans interact with machines, and analyzes how technologies reshape our feelings and emotions. We ask him about emojis and other reaction icons, we get his view on the Disney-Pixar movie "Inside Out", and we talk about "facial recognition", a set of technologies that constitute, in his view, "the plutonium of AI". /episode/index/show/goodcodepodcast/id/9112790

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