Here's the question class ended on w/ lots of hands up but not enough time to fully discuss. Will the big tech companies ever significantly shift their commitments b/c too many of the best data scientists will object to their ethics/politics/culture & look for jobs elsewhere?
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Ethics only seems to work long-term when it's not a theoretical value but a sensory one—and for that to happen, we need to roll back the entire familiar framework of priorities, relationships, valuing abstract thought over experience, etc. Which is not going to happen soon, alas.
But then on the other hand, market forces are a formal expression of that same collective emotional desire. If the entity (a demographic or an individual) feeling the desire is powerful enough, their ambition drives economic restructuring, new legislation, etc.