Slowing Down Technology Development

From Asia and the Americas to Europe and Africa, I've worked with many talented people who do great technical work: highly skilled, strong leaders, and people who get things done. The more I work with these people, the more I realize how small and immature I am. However, seemingly not many people can question fundamental assumptions behind their work. What are we trying to change through this project? For whom are we working? Why do we need this particular tool given our specific situation? Why X, not Y? Why AI? And so on. Technological trends and market demands evolve fast. Hence, capitalist-minded organizations often jump onto externally defined visions and take simplistic routes rather than examining the problem statements themselves. In technology development, this leads us to a series of cheap, unsustainable "AI" or "digital transformation" work; without considering local contexts and longer-term implications, organizations and governments blindly believe these initiatives bring…

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