goodbot is an interdisciplinary community of socially-minded professionals working in law, technology, design, social sciences, and policy. Our purpose is to support ecosystem-level solutions that advance the development of trusted, accountable, and socially sustainable technology through awareness, research, policy, and practice.
Strengthening ecosystem-level responses means:
creating a common vision, agenda, and strategic objectives
improving information-sharing mechanisms
strengthening civil society capacity-building
supporting effective collaboration and cooperation
strengthening public policy engagement
supporting responsible frontline tech and AI implementation.
We also develop original research on emerging innovation, technology risks and harms, and approaches needed to effectively govern technology and build toward healthy and inclusive digital societies that benefit everyone
Additionally, we provide professional services to help technology companies develop and embed measurable social impact strategies into their products and business models as they navigate a complex and rapidly evolving regulatory landscape.
our vision
A healthy, adaptive, and resilient digital society where stakeholders work collaboratively to develop, deploy, and govern technology in socially sustainable ways, making Canada a global leader in responsible technology.
To succeed, this new digital ecosystem requires intentional, inclusive, and collaborative multi-stakeholder efforts that are capable of fostering new technology development norms, governance frameworks, business models, and incentive systems.
our mission is to
We develop collaborative, measurable, and transparent social impact strategies and tools to enhance Canada’s performance in technology and strengthen Canadian digital society.
about the name goodbot
goodbot’s emerged during a talk with a corporate partner exploring high rates of racist hate speech in the comments section of online newspapers which was being fuelled by bots. An executive suggested mobilizing his company’s army of ‘good’ bots to counter the ‘bad’ bots, an anecdote that highlights several important and common trends. These include the tech sector’s:
instinct to “tech” its way out of problems;
lack of intentionality in building and scaling tech with proactive consideration for societal impacts into products and business modesl;
lack of thoughtful policy and governance capable of advancing public interest;
acceptance of oversimplified framings of ‘good’ vs ‘bad’ tech;
tendency to respond to symptoms rather than systems-level issues, and;
adherence to incentive systems that often discourage responsible responses.
The name goodbot is therefore something of an ironic oversimplification of an incredibly complex and interconnected set of issues that need to be addressed simultaneously given the rapid recent advancements of technology. While most will agree that racism is bad, solving it is less straightforward. Is the correct answer to bar all speech that is considered offensive? How do you define and detect this speech? Is there a risk that such practices could inadvertently suppress the speech of marginalized groups and reinforce echo chambers? What does that mean for values that we consider sacred but that others might consider offensive? On platforms that optimize for engagement and profit, how do we reorient technology to optimize for society? Is that even possible? If so, what kind of institutions and frameworks do we need to get there?
These are but some of the complex questions that goodbot seeks to explore in building toward trusted, accountable, and socially sustainable technology ecosystems
