Once again our world is facing a new kind of technological upheaval. While the accelerated release of generative AI tools on the public, human creative works and intellectual production of ideas suddenly seem less easy to define than they were just two years ago. Without focusing on generative AI specifically in our session, we want to acknowledge that these new technologies have afforded a broader constituency access to immediate examples of ways breakthroughs in computing impact our lives and our planet.

In this active session, we invite audience participation in discussing what role computing should play in society. Is there a change needed? How might computing education practitioners and researchers contribute to that vision? To help us get started, we will hear from a panel of practitioners in the emerging field of Public Interest Technology who will share their visions for how they would like to see computing be a force for good in the world. Then we will use the second half of the session to explore what does ‘doing good’ look like? What opportunities exist for computing education to participate in collaborations toward a more inclusive and responsible computing future? Finally, in addition to making new connections, we invite participants to share their ideas for how Computers and Society might support those efforts.