# The Responsibility of Tech: Reflections from Grace Hopper Celebration

DevFeed: [The Responsibility of Tech: Reflections from Grace Hopper Celebration](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/the-responsibility-of-tech-reflections-from-grace-hopper-celebration-26225.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://medium.com/groupon-eng/the-responsibility-of-tech-reflections-from-grace-hopper-celebration-bc2a4c84775f?source=rss----5c13a88f9872---4>)

Author: Nida Pervez

Published: 2021-11-11T15:33:52Z

Content type: opinion

Language: en

Sources: [Groupon Engineering -- Medium](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/groupon-engineering-medium.md>)

Topics: [Development](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/development.md>), [Google](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/google.md>), [Artificial Intelligence](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/ai.md>)

Tags: [conference](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/conference.md>), [ethics](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ethics.md>), [google](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/google.md>), [product-development](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/product-development.md>), [reflections](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/reflections.md>), [tech](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/tech.md>), [tech-industry](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/tech-industry.md>), [women-in-tech](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/women-in-tech.md>)

## AI overview

A reflection on Grace Hopper Celebration sessions about ethics, responsibility, gender inequality, and disability in technology. The author considers how technology companies and product teams should support women and take responsibility for the effects of their work.

## Source excerpt

The end of September was marked by one of the most exciting events for women in technology: Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing (GHC). For those who do not know, GHC is a yearly conference that highlights women's contributions/involvement in different aspects of the tech industry. In a field that is overwhelmingly dominated by men, it's important to acknowledge the feats of women which otherwise might be drowned out. The week-long conference is packed with speakers, panels, interactive sessions, networking events, and a career fair. In my college days most of my attention admittedly was on the career fair -- but this year I had the opportunity to attend virtually through Groupon, a platinum sponsor of the conference. This year's theme was #DareTo, and I saw that play out in many of the talks, but the sessions that impacted me the most dared me to take responsibility for tech I produced. Three talks that especially left an impression on me were Dr.Timnit Gebru's keynote, Integrating Ethics and Responsibility in the Product Development Cycle by Kathy Pham, and Disability is an Opportunity for Innovation by Haben Girma. Each speaker speaks on the effect of taking responsibility (or lack thereof) for one's technological feats. Dr.Gebru's talk highlighted how large tech corporations can take advantage of freedom for the sake of technological "advancement". In her talk, Gebru explained in detail about her dismissal from the co-lead position of Google's ethical AI team. There were two main aspects to this song that I understood. One being the sexism she faced and the other was the blatant unethical behavior of Google. Gebru addresses the inequality between men and women in the workforce at Google and highlighted that she was fired for doing the right thing, whereas many of her male counterparts could do ethically wrong things and still get by. As a company that is an Emerald sponsor (highest degree of sponsorship) of GHC, she asked what kind of message does that