III. SPECIAL ISSUE TWO: UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES OF INNOVATIONS
Spearheaded under the leadership of Clinton J. Andrews, a second special issue, which although connected to the first, rightfully commands its own set of viewers captivated by the topic of unexpected results stemming from innovation.Andrews’ work is neither situated solely on GenAI, nor on the broader topic of emerging technologies (Fig. 1), which so often preoccupies our attention in this space, but on innovation per se. In fact, Carvalko and Andrews both concur that there are positive and negative unintended consequences of innovation.
Andrews begins by asking the age-old question: “If people want the benefits of innovations, must they simply accept the unintended adverse consequences”? He implies that there
are certain tools and techniques that could assist designers in addressing challenges before they take root, so that the challenges may be easily preventable before diffusion of an innovation into the market. And yet there is a full realization that not all businesses adopt such preventive strategies toward what he terms “spillover effects”. He is a realist in so far as summing up the present situation- deploy first, worry about teething problems later. In this reactive mode, Andrews states, jurisprudence is busy remediating the blatant wrongs. And while it might well look like an ethical problem at its root, the development of poor digital applications or services may well be more about an organization’s competencies or incentives in their workforce. Andrews brings to light various methodologies and tools that can be employed to anticipate the unintended consequences of innovation. His fundamental proposition emphasizes that it is crucial to address any potential challenges prior to or soon after the introduction of a new invention, thus alleviating harm to stakeholders before the core features become firmly established. Just as Carvalko’s paper
frames his special issue, Andrews’ peer reviewed paper does likewise in introducing three additional papers with a mixture of positive and negative social implications.
Citation
K. Michael, J. R. Carvalko, C. J. Andrews and L. Batley, “In the Special Issues: GenAI, Ingenuity, the Law, and Unintended Consequences,” in IEEE Transactions on Technology and Society, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 149-155, June 2024, doi: 10.1109/TTS.2024.3413268. keywords: {Special issues and sections; Generative AI;Biometrics (access control); Security;Artificial intelligence;Creativity;Law},