From Local News Matters Bay Area
Beyond Big Tech: Why ‘advocacy technology’ will be the next hot career in AI-driven world
By
it will lay off thousands of employees; Amazon announced over 14,000 layoffs. Companies like Google and Microsoft have also faced criticism this year for plans to develop AI for weapons and for firing outspoken critical employees. Clearly, Big Tech is facing uncertain times.
As a Ph.D. researcher at the University of California, Berkeley School of Information, and as a former science and tech analyst for the ACLU of Massachusetts, I’ve got good news and bad news.
The good news? Tech job-seekers don’t have to work for these companies. In fact, they don’t have to work for companies at all.
Rather, we need a new generation of tech workers — I call them advocacy technologists — who support the public sector and work in mission-driven, advocacy-oriented organizations.
Lauren Chambers is a Ph.D. candidate at the UC Berkeley School of Information.
