Clear Review | The best technology is human at heart

Since 2000, PR consultancy Edelman has been producing the annual Trust Barometer. Interviewing thousands of people across dozens of markets, the idea is to create a high-level view of humankind’s attitudes to institutions. How do we feel about our governments? The media? Our employers?

The 2019 Barometer, presented at the World Economic Forum in Davos this January, showed an interesting dichotomy. On the one hand, trust in employers is at an all-time high. It seems that our scepticism about politicians has led us back to the hands that feed us. In the absence of politics we can believe in, we look to our employers for guidance. We expect CEOs to lead on social change. We want to feel that our work is having a social impact.

But there’s a flip side to this: never before have we felt so concerned about the rise of technology. We see artificial intelligence, robotics and technology as threats to our welfare. Will my job be stolen by a robot? Will someone create software that can research, or write, or analyse more quickly and effectively than I can? Will I wake up one day to find that the career I’ve spent the last twenty years building has gone the way of the telegraph operator or lift attendant?

People don’t always see the humanising side of technology. When we’re presented with a big idea like Al, many of us instantly think of something mysterious and threatening. Popular culture may have a lot to do with this: think of The Matrix or Terminator movies, where technology is nearly always something to be feared.