ACM, Ethics, and Corporate Behavior

theodp writes: In the just-published March 2022 issue Communications of the ACM, former CACM Editor-in-Chief Moshe Y. Vardi takes tech companies -- and their officers and technical leaders -- to task over the societal risk posed by surveillance capitalism in "ACM, Ethics, and Corporate Behavior." Vardi writes: "Surveillance capitalism is perfectly legal, and enormously profitable, but it is unethical, many people believe, including me. After all, the ACM Code of Professional Ethics starts with 'Computing professionals' actions change the world. To act responsibly, they should reflect upon the wider impacts of their work, consistently supporting the public good.' It would be extremely difficult to argue that surveillance capitalism supports the public good." "The biggest problem that computing faces today is not that AI technology is unethical -- though machine bias is a serious issue -- but that AI technology is used by large and powerful corporations to support a business model that is, arguably, unethical. Yet, with the exception of FAccT, I have seen practically no serious discussion in the ACM community of its relationship with surveillance-capitalism corporations. For example, the ACM Turing Award, ACM's highest award, is now accompanied by a prize of $1 million, supported by Google." "Furthermore, the issue is not just ACM's relationship with tech companies. We must also consider how we view officers and technical leaders in these companies. Seriously holding members of our community accountable for the decisions of the institutions they lead raises important questions. How do we apply the standard of 'have not committed any action that violates the ACM Code of Ethics and ACM's Core Values' to such people? It is time for us to have difficult and nuanced conversations on responsible computing, ethics, corporate behavior, and professional responsibility."

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