Dialogue for Creating Technologies in the Service of Society
Digital technologies are significantly changing our society and everyday life from how we work and receive care and connect with each other. Yet their benefits are not felt equally across communities or places. For these technologies to meet the most important human needs, avoid harm and support fairer societies, human rights must be central to how they are designed, developed, used, and governed. Rights such as privacy, non‑discrimination, fairness, and participation are not abstract principles but are practical guardrails that can and should guide technological development.
As the Futures and Dialogue team at the Royal Academy of Engineering, we work to bring voices of diverse publics into engineering practice. We do this by creating deliberative and reflective spaces where citizens, communities, policy makers, and engineers alike could share and listen to diverse perspectives, expertise, and lived experience to enable better socio-technical innovation. Drawing on insights from convening dialogues, this post reflects on what we learned and shares some considerations for what comes next for human rights and technology.
Listening to Diverse Voices for Upholding Human Rights
Across our dialogues, public participants expressed a clear desire to be involved in serious conversations, regardless of their level of technical knowledge, where their lived experiences will be taken seriously by those who are developing and regulating technologies. Both experts and members of the public were keen to have more opportunities to hear from people whom they might disagree with, recognising that diverse perspectives help reveal how technologies can affect individuals and communities differently. Such dialogues become practical opportunities for all involved to explore what responsible technologies that uphold human rights might look like.
Across sessions on various topics from AI in healthcare to infrastructural planning, people expressed a strong desire for the benefits to be shared equitably, prioritising those most vulnerable, and paying close attention to the invisible impacts that can deepen structural inequities and lead to human rights violations. Technology experts who participated in these conversations noted that these fresh perspectives brought up new considerations for them and prompted important questions about what accuracy, accessibility, and efficiency might look like in practice, while reinforcing the need to prioritise transparency and fairness in innovation.
Proactive Dialogue and The Role of Engineers and Technology Developers
Engineers remain amongst the UK’s most trusted professions. Maintaining and deepening this trust requires engineers to take on the responsibility to ensure technological solutions are developed and deployed in ways that meet the needs of all parts of society safely, securely, and ethically. This expectation was strongly echoed by members of the public in our dialogues, expecting engineers to play a leading role in delivering long term positive societal impact that advances human rights of all and is environmentally sustainable.
For engineers and technology developers, meeting these expectations begins with proactively seeking opportunities to hear directly from people who may use or be affected by their work, starting from the earliest stages of problem definition. Doing so is especially critical for emerging technologies such as AI, where impacts are often indirect and interconnected. Early, sustained, and intentional dialogue with diverse publics can help identify potential human rights risks and uncover preferences or concerns for unfairly affected groups that may otherwise be overlooked.
Questions for Going Forward
Our dialogues demonstrated the value of bringing technology experts and engineers together with diverse members of the public into the same room. Such spaces are not typical in engineering, but they are vital for challenging assumptions and broadening understanding of and expectations for technological change. To support future conversations, these prompts can help start identifying where dialogue and deep listening might be helpful:
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Centre: Whose perspectives and lived experiences are not heard? What power imbalances as well as local, social and historical contexts need to be centred and considered? Who can help you identify these?
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Convene: Which groups typically do not come together that are impacted by or have influence on this issue? Where are unique opportunities, topics, geographical areas that can bridge this gap?
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Contribute: Acknowledging that technological change is embedded in society and requires input from different disciplines, what opportunities exist to add value to ongoing conversations and strengthen collaboration to help articulate desired societies and futures?
Digital technologies must be developed through deliberative and inclusive processes that consider diverse lived experiences, local contexts, and long-term impacts. Going forward, we call for embedding proactive listening into technology development which not only helps overcome barriers to participation and inclusion but also directly supports the realisation of human rights including the right to share in scientific advancement and its benefits, and the right to participate in public life.
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