Cennydd Bowles

Like most designers who work in technology, Cennydd Bowles has reflected at times on the impact of his work and its ethical implications.

After a couple of decades of information architecture and interaction design practice, Cennydd stepped back from his design work to explore philosophy and ethics in depth.

His explorations have led him to extensive academic study as well as speaking gigs and writing on the subject, including a book, Future Ethics.

We talked about:

his transition from interaction design to tech ethics
his origins in the information architecture world and his career, including a stint at Twitter
how we as designers have missed predictable mistakes and patterns that ethicists have long known about
how he got hooked on philosophy and ethics
his 2018 book on the connections between the worlds of philosophy and design, Future Ethics
the ethical issues that can arise in even a seemingly harmless practice like A/B testing
his prediction that AI will in the not-too-distant future permit almost fully automated product development and the risks that that brings
how the difficulties of measuring trust might exacerbate the trust issues that arise with AI
the "magical" nature of AI his observation that "the problem with magic is it's intentionally deceptive"
a new orchestrator role that he sees coming with AI
his pessimism about the prospects for humans over the long term in the AI economy
how Cory Doctorow's notion of "enshittification" manifests in the design and AI world
what he sees coming: "rapidly iterating mediocrity rather than considered excellence"
the power, albeit diminished recently, of employees to influence ethical decision-making within organizations
three books he recommends (links below)
his advice to designers to listen to and connect with philosophers and learn from their prior work on ethics

Cennydd's bio
Cennydd Bowles is a technology ethicist and interaction designer, author of Future Ethics, and a recent Fulbright Visiting Scholar at Elon University. Cennydd’s views on the ethics of emerging technology and design have been quoted by Forbes, WIRED, and The Wall Street Journal, and he has spoken on responsible innovation at Facebook, Stanford University, and Google.
Connect with Cennydd online

LinkedIn
Cennydd.com

Tech ethics books

Future Ethics, Cennydd Bowles
Design for Real Life, Eric Meyer and Sara Wachter-Boettcher
Ethical Product Development, Pavani Reddy
Ethics for People who Work in Tech, Marc Steen

Video
Here’s the video version of our conversation:


https://youtu.be/MbfK7AnPa-0


Podcast intro transcript
This is the Content and AI podcast, episode number 36. In the flurry of activity launched by AI-technology investment, ethical considerations have been left largely unexplored. Cennydd Bowles is an accomplished interaction designer who has spent the last several years studying and writing and speaking about tech ethics and responsible innovation. What he sees unfolding now concerns him, leading him to predict that the near-term future is more likely to bring "rapidly iterating mediocrity rather than considered excellence."
Interview transcript

Larry:
Hi, everyone. Welcome to episode number 36 of the Content and AI Podcast. I am really delighted today to welcome to the show, Cennydd Bowles. Cennydd is a technology ethicist and interaction designer based in the UK. Welcome, Cennydd. Tell the folks a little bit more about what you're up to these days.

Cennydd:
Hey, Larry. Well, so let's see. I've just got back from America, so for the last six months, I've been in Elon University, North Carolina as a Fulbright visiting scholar. This is really a large part of my transition, essentially, from the days of UX and product design within industry, and transitioning from that into academia, and particularly philosophy, philosophy of technology, and ethics of technology.