Reflecting today on the cultural challenges to practising ethics in tech companies, and where power and responsibility for ethical and moral choices are located.

Putting ethics into practice in tech companies means giving employees the institutional backing and culture to confidently raise ethical concerns and publish freely without fear of retribution, such as that levied today at @timnitGebru by Google.

A recent survey of 24 "responsible AI" practitioners across multiple sectors by @ruchowdh @bobirakova @hsmcramer @jingyingyang describes the challenges practitioners face in promoting ethical practice inside industry https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/putting-responsible-ai-into-practice/

Chief among these is that tech workers are "measured on productivity & contributions to revenue, with little value placed on preventing reputational or compliance harm & mitigating risk." There is real fear or retribution or harm for internally reporting ethical issues.

Ethical tech development is not only the right thing to do, but is a competitive advantage. Doteveryone's excellent 2019 tech worker survey demonstrated that more than 25% of UK tech workers witnessed socially harmful decision-making, & 1 in 5 of those subsequently quit.

Doteveryone recommended that industry should introduce clear processes for ethical whistleblowing, and help tech workers understand social impacts through training https://www.doteveryone.org.uk/project/industry-attitudes-to-responsible-technology/

Also, @AINowInstitute has an excellent guide, "How to interview a tech company", which suggests questions that prospective tech workers should ask their employers, including about internal whistleblower protections. https://ainowinstitute.org/how-to-interview-a-tech-company.pdf