Track Host: Birgitta Böckeler

How is software technology changing our lives? We are always on with our smartphones, connected with people across the globe via social media, get all kinds of information within milliseconds and it doesn't cost us a dime. With the renaissance of AI, many things around us get smart like self-driving cars, household robots, rescue drones, speech recognition or a supermarket like Amazon Go.

All this sounds incredibly good and we are happy to live in those exiting times, but there's also a dark side we need to take of: it was never easier for governments or companies to spy on us and violate our right on privacy. The military invests in software-based warfare. Lots of good paid jobs like bank clercks disappear forever because of the internet. Easy working tasks get automated away and new skills are needed in future to not get obsolete in a highly technical society.

The IT & Society track looks at the upcoming challenges the society faces and also the responsibilities of us software developers in this digitalized world.