*Note: This description is also a transcript of the trailer.

Hosted by Elizabeth Renieris, founding director of the Notre Dame-IBM Technology Ethics Lab, Tech on Earth is a podcast aimed at bringing a practical lens to tech ethics around the world.

When things abruptly shut down in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, technology kept us connected. But as everything from work, school, and time with friends and family moved online for many of us, technology’s promises and pitfalls also grew more apparent. Challenges around technologies deployed as part of the international public health response also highlighted the need for cross-border cooperation and collaboration, as well as differing cultural attitudes towards their use. 

At the same time, governments and NGOs continue to advocate for standards and guidelines for the ethical development and use of artificial intelligence and other advanced technologies, which have historically been driven by U.S. and Western European interests. As companies and other organizations seek to embrace and reflect more diverse and inclusive viewpoints, we’ll seek to provide insights on tech ethics from around the globe. 

We’ll aim to understand how “tech ethics” are actually understood and interpreted in different parts of the world, gather lessons from various religious and secular traditions, and examine how cultural norms and attitudes shape, support, or impede the realization of ethical principles in practice. Our hope is to find some common ground across divergent perspectives on the ethics that should govern the design and use of cross-border technologies now and in the future.

Join us as we bring technology ethics down to earth. Tech on Earth is available wherever you get your podcasts and at techethicslab.nd.edu.