When we incorporated The Foundation for Bioethics in Technology in 2022, much of what we discussed had long been dismissed as science fiction. Today, however, Artificial Intelligence and Synthetic Biology are becoming more integrated into our daily lives—an experience that, for many, is silently filtered through hidden algorithms driven by click counts and, of course, paid promotions. People are unknowingly consuming custom-designed messaging while generating valuable data about themselves, revealing their biases and preferences. This data is bought and sold repeatedly, with the ultimate goal of enhancing corporate shareholder value.
At our first official Foundation public meeting, held in The Idea Studio at the Warwick Public Library, we screened The Social Dilemma. This film illustrated how data collection on popular social media platforms like Facebook had not only been training artificial intelligence but also fueling and intensifying divisive arguments. The presenters warned that due to the manipulation of emotions and the funneling of personalized content, free and fair elections might become impossible. People are now living in fragmented realities, each user perched at the center of their own tailored digital world, processing an overwhelming amount of information and stimulation. This phenomenon has left deep psychological scars on Western society, particularly on children who are overexposed to this unnatural environment.
During these early stages of the Foundation, those who ventured out to our monthly meetings were eager to share their insights and validate suspicions they had gathered online during the confines of COVID-19—whether they were questioning the effectiveness of masks, the shifting definition of the word “vaccine,” or the security of their jobs. While Elon Musk and his Silicon Valley peers expanded their operations and accumulated unprecedented wealth, many of us felt increasingly poorer. Amidst this, politics devolved into a caricature of itself, with nearly every topic being politicized and ultimately weaponized.
This tactic is not new. It has been employed for decades since the rise of commercial marketing. The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency is highly adept at using these techniques to destabilize foreign governments. But now, powered by lightning-fast computers and cutting-edge machine learning, these methods are being used against us.
As the Foundation grows, our mission remains clear: to navigate the ethical challenges posed by new technologies without succumbing to the traps of political division. We focus on policy, not politics. We encourage people from all political backgrounds to join our discussions and work together to shape a future that is ethical, transparent, and inclusive. By focusing on policy, we can build solutions that transcend party lines, ensuring that technology serves humanity, not the other way around.
