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Toscano Returns to Nebraska to Speak on Big Tech

Graduate Discusses Ethical Dilemmas in Harris Lecture
Toscano Returns to Nebraska to Speak on Big Tech
Joe Toscano, ’14, returns to Nebraska to talk about data rights accessibility in this year’s Lewis E. Harris Lecture.
Former experience design consultant for Google and author, Joe Toscano, ’14, presents “Automating Humanity” at the University of Nebraska­–Lincoln on Friday, November 22, 10:30-11:20 a.m. in the large auditorium in Howard L. Hawks Hall. Co-hosted by the College of Business and College of Law as part of the Lewis E. Harris Lecture Series, the event, which is free and open to the public, will be livestreamed in the Henrickson Family Atrium and in HLH 020.

His book “Automating Humanity” released in 2018, provides an insider's perspective on everything Toscano believes Big Tech doesn't want you to know. This includes the addictions fostered on a global scale to the profits being driven by fake news and disinformation, and the way they’re manipulating the world for profit and using our data to train systems to automate jobs at an explosive, unprecedented scale.

“Unlike previous eras of work where we used to screw in the nuts and bolts to build machines, today we create the data that makes machines intelligent. Unfortunately, this time around, we're not getting paid and the plan is that once we train the systems it's time to dump us for the machines,” Toscano said in a recent TEDxLincoln talk in June 2019.

Toscano, who majored in advertising and public relations and psychology at the College of Journalism and Mass Communications, serves as the founder and chief vision officer at BEACON, a social innovation organization whose goal is to create a better future through technology. He also serves as a contributing author to multiple publications, such as Forbes, Smashing Magazine and Adweek. His lectures brought him to more than 19 states and across four continents to speak about resolving technology’s ethical dilemmas.

The Harris Lecture Series is designed to bring renowned business experts to campus to engage students, faculty, business members and the community. This series promotes ongoing discussion and examination of major policy issues that affect the relationship between business and community, as well as business and government in today’s economy.

To view Toscano’s TEDxLincoln talk, visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDboy_RMaXk
Published: November 7, 2019