Responsible Software Engineering

Chapter 1. Responsible Software Engineering: A Quick Introduction

A friend of mine writes articles for the national media. A few years ago, one of their articles drew the attention of extremists, who responded with thousands of aggressive, hateful messages over email, social media, and the telephone—including threats of violence. It was a stressfest for my friend. They blocked the threatening phone callers and started using Google Voice to screen calls. In case you’re not familiar with Google Voice, it’s a virtual phone line that uses AI to transcribe voicemail messages and email them to you.

The hate storm eventually dissipated. Time passed, and life returned to normal. My friend continued using Google Voice anyway. Until one day, they received an unsettling voicemail transcript (shown in Figure 1-1): “Dead dead dead dead dead dead dead...”

Figure 1-1. An unfortunate voicemail message as transcribed by Google Voice

What did the message mean? Was it a threat? Was the horrible hate storm starting up again? Feeling worried, my friend connected to Google Voice and listened to the message directly.

The call was not a threat. It was a series of beeps—the classic sound of a disconnected phone call in the United States. The AI software that powers Google Voice had transcribed the “beep, beep, beep” sound as “dead, dead, dead.”

Clearly, the team of engineers who developed Google Voice ...