hbr - how to avoid the ethical nightmares of emerging technologies

This is a great HBR article (written by Reid Blackman) because it cuts through the corporate fluff and makes a clear, urgent case for why ethics must be a core business strategy—not just a compliance afterthought—especially in the adoption of AI. It touches on key elements of my own article on AI and ethics, reinforcing the need for business leaders to explicitly identify their worst-case ethical nightmares and build real safeguards, rather than blindly trusting black-box AI, quantum computing, or blockchain governance models. Most importantly, it puts responsibility where it belongs—on executives, not just engineers or risk officers.

While this is all sound advice, the reality is that AI is scaling at an unprecedented pace, and both its creators and consumers are locked in a race for competitive advantage. This tension—between ethical responsibility and market pressure—will define the coming years. Companies that get this balance wrong risk not only regulatory scrutiny but also the long-term (and potentially catastrophic) erosion of public trust. Those that get it right will likely end up securing long term sustained success. The challenge isn't just avoiding ethical failures but doing so while still moving at the speed that AI-driven innovation seems to be demanding.