Batya Friedman receives Future of Life Award

Batya Friedman
Batya Friedman

Trained as a computer scientist in the late 1970s, Batya Friedman has been asking questions about how to live well in the world and how to treat people with dignity and respect. These questions, along with an interest in tools and technology, drew Friedman to ask herself how she could build something that would be more likely to contribute in a positive way.

The result was Value Sensitive Design.

In the 1990s, Friedman developed Value Sensitive Design (VSD), a framework that systematically integrates human values into the technological design process. Central to this approach is the engagement of both moral and technical imaginations, a vision that has influenced fields such as computer science and urban planning.

For her work in VSD, Friedman recently received the Future of Life Award, which honors individuals whose contributions have significantly improved humanity's trajectory. The award, funded by Skype co-founder Jaan Tallinn, includes a $50,000 prize. This year’s honorees also include philosopher James Moore and artificial intelligence scientist Steve Omohundro.

The award is distributed by the Future of Life Institute, an organization established in 2015 to steer transformative technology toward benefiting life and away from extreme large-scale risks.

“It's exciting to see my early work on human values and technology being recognized, acknowledged and brought forward,” Friedman said. “I hope the award will make Value Sensitive Design more visible and potentially more accessible.”

Friedman is a University of Washington Information School professor who co-directs the UW’s Value Sensitive Design Lab with Dave Hendry and co-directed UW’s Tech Policy Lab with Ryan Calo, Tadayoshi Kohno and Aylin Caliskan. She was hired In 1999 to architect and develop the Informatics major. She recently stepped away from full-time work as a professor.

“With the Informatics major, I was thinking from the beginning about how to design curriculum and experiences for students that bring together their technical expertise with their understanding of human beings and societies and the broader world, and bring that into their technical work,” she said.

Across the globe, VSD has been adopted in a variety of fields, such as designing wind farms in Denmark to balance efficiency with environmental concerns, modernizing energy systems in Finland while preserving historic buildings, and creating AI tools that promote fairness and equity.

“We've developed robust theory and methods that are applicable across a wide range of technologies and a wide range of human values,” Friedman said. “We're really trying to give people the tools and methods to develop their own tools and methods as they engage with the technology that is compelling to them.”

For Friedman, receiving the award at the same time as Moore is particularly meaningful. The philosopher passed away in September and was not aware he had received the award prior to his death.

“[He] is someone whom I have been reading since the mid-’80s,” Friedman said. “He's a person that I've really respected and learned from, so it's a great honor for me to be alongside him.”

As a part of the award announcement, Friedman was a guest on the podcast StarTalk, hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson. The podcast audio will be available on Dec 13.

The Future of Life Award recognizes individuals who identified critical needs early on. For the next generation, Friedman emphasizes the importance of staying true to one’s convictions and pursuing work even in the face of doubt. 

“[If] you feel your intuitions are really strong, stick with them,” she said. “Persevere on what you believe in.”