Patrick Schwerdtfeger is a business futurist specializing in technology trends including artificial intelligence, blockchain, disruptive innovation, and the complex ethical questions emerging as a result of these technologies. Gartner picked digital ethics as their leading strategic trend for 2019. Patrick is the author of the award-winning book Anarchy, Inc.: Profiting in a Decentralized World with Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain (2018, Authority Publishing) and a regular speaker for Bloomberg TV. He has lectured at various academic institutions including Purdue and Stanford Universities. Digital ethics includes two primary areas. First, we all need to manage the content people can find about us online, especially those in medical or psychological fields. Second, artificial intelligence platforms need to make ethical decisions as they operate in our society (autonomous vehicles, for example). Patrick’s focus on disruptive innovation and exponential technologies gives him a unique perspective to these challenges, and what we’re likely to see in the years ahead.
Past speaking clients include:
Recent speaking destinations include:
Expert on Artificial Intelligence
The classic example involves an autonomous vehicle driving behind a cargo truck. Something falls off the back of the truck, and the car needs to either swerve left or right. There’s an SUV to the right with a family of passengers including two young children. There’s a motorcycle with one passenger to the left. Which way should the car swerve? It’s guaranteed to hit one of the two. These are complex decisions, and there are countless others, that all need to be dissected and analyzed through an ethical lens. The problem is that these societal priorities (men versus women, old versus young, more humans versus less humans) differ around the world. It will be challenging to incorporate these various societal priorities based on location.
There are a number of books coming out that try to address these issues, including Technology vs. Humanity by Gerd Leonhard (Fast Future Publishing, 2016), Controversies in Digital Ethics (Bloomsbury Academic; Reprint edition, 2017) and Ethics for a Digital Age (Peter Lang Inc., International Academic Publishers, 2015) and we can expect much more dialog about these challenges in the years ahead. Patrick covers a variety of specific scenarios and encourages audience attendees to think about their own ideas about equity and fairness. Business leaders need to explore the ethical aspects of their products and services. We already see this today with filtered Google search results and codes of conduct on Facebook and Instagram. What constitutes “hate speech” as opposed to legitimate conservative views? These issues are all related, and they will be hotly debated for years to come.
Digital Ethics Keynote Speech
Examples of digital ethics and ethical dilemmas in the technology space include the following:
Patrick Schwerdtfeger is a keynote speaker who has spoken at business conferences in North America, South America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
