Private Consciences and Public Companies: Whether and How to Work within Big Tech

This in-person event is open to Harvard students, faculty, staff, and affiliates.

"Nothing vast enters the life of mortals without a curse."
—Sophocles, as cited in The Social Dilemma

Google. Meta. Apple. Microsoft.

These companies dominate the stock market, pervade our professional and private lives, and increasingly act as quasi-governmental bodies whose decisions shape the de facto rules that govern our communities. At best, the products designed by Big Tech make us more productive at the office and more social in our private lives. At worst, Big Tech monetizes user data that should be private, facilitates hate speech, encourages misinformation, and catalyzes anti-democratic norms.

How should students think about working for such companies?

What are the ethical considerations that students should ponder?

Join the Berkman Klein Center’s Institute for Rebooting Social Media to discuss these questions—questions of personal conscience and responsibility—with a group of industry panelists. Institute co-director Professor James Mickens will moderate.

Panelists include Hallie Benjamin (Meta, formerly Google), Professor Nien-hê Hsieh (Harvard Business School & BKC), Elaine Sedenberg (Meta, formerly CTSP/Berkeley), Irene Solaiman (Hugging Face, formerly OpenAI), and Claire Stapleton (writer & communications consultant, formerly Google).

Location: Lewis International Law Center, Room 515

This in-person event is open to Harvard students, faculty, staff, and affiliates.

Light refreshments will be served.

RSVP is required.