Every code needs conscience: CJI Ranjan Gogoi at BITS Pilani

Former Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi inaugurated the 43rd edition of Apogee, BITS Pilani’s flagship 72-hour tech festival, with a speech that cut through the noise of innovation to spotlight a growing gap: the one between rapid technological progress and ethical accountability.

Standing before an audience of engineers, coders, and tech entrepreneurs, Gogoi admitted the incongruity of his presence. “What could a former judge possibly offer to a hall filled with the future architects of our world?” he mused, only to swiftly answer himself: in a world transformed by artificial intelligence, gene editing, and algorithmic governance, the dialogue between justice and technology is “not only necessary—it is long overdue.”

Drawing from his judicial worldview, Gogoi mapped a moral terrain for an age where technological capabilities are racing ahead of ethical frameworks. “The tools we’ve built are beginning to outpace the ethics we’ve inherited,” he warned. The real threat, he argued, is not just disruption but moral disorientation.

Justice as the compass, not a brake

In a compelling inversion of stereotypes, Gogoi rejected the notion of law as the brake to technology’s engine. Instead, he offered a more nuanced metaphor: law as the steering wheel. “If we move fast without direction, we crash. But if we have direction and refuse to move, we stagnate.”

Far from advocating regulation as red tape, he called for a visionary alliance between lawyers, engineers, ethicists, and entrepreneurs. Not to stifle innovation, but to “guide it toward a future we can be proud to inhabit.” Law, in his view, must become a fellow architect of our digital future—not merely punishing what goes wrong, but helping to imagine what could go right.

Code as a manifesto

Perhaps the most striking portion of his speech came when Gogoi challenged the audience to see their creations not as neutral tools, but as embedded ideologies. “Every line of code… carries with it a theory of the world, a hidden manifesto,” he said. The myth of technological neutrality, he insisted, is a dangerous abdication of responsibility. The mantra “I’m just the builder” is, in itself, a profound ethical decision.

Gogoi urged students to become “curators of consequences,” arguing that ethical engineering is not just about avoiding harm but actively creating dignity. In the 21st century, he said, real power lies not in parliaments but in platforms, not in manifestos but in machine learning models. “That power now belongs, increasingly, to people like you.”

Invisible power and the absent accountability

He cautioned that while engineers today wield immense influence—from shaping democratic discourse to determining access to basic services—this power often escapes scrutiny. Unlike elected officials, algorithm designers do not stand for public office. “We are at a strange moment in history,” he noted, “where technology holds immense public power, but very little public accountability.”

That asymmetry, he suggested, must be corrected not by fear or guilt, but by stewardship. “You do not have to become activists or philosophers. But you do have to care.”

Failure, ambition, and the myth of perfection

In a poignant shift from the cerebral to the soulful, Gogoi turned toward the inner lives of the students. He spoke candidly of failure—not as a setback but as the “soil in which all progress grows.” In a culture obsessed with perfection and optimization, he offered a quieter truth: “The world doesn’t need your perfection. It needs your process. Your persistence.”

He redefined ambition not as a race or a résumé, but as “crafting a life aligned with your values.” In his most personal appeal, he urged the students to become themselves, rather than simply becoming someone. “This is a much harder task,” he admitted, “but it is the only one that will matter in the long run.”

Building the future with intention

In an age when ChatGPT can mimic conversation, CRISPR can rewrite life, and platforms can reshape societies, Gogoi’s speech was a reminder that the most important algorithms are still human. His message to the engineers of BITS Pilani was as much a challenge as a blessing: build boldly, but build wisely. Build for the future, but also for fairness. Let code serve conscience.

Because in the end, as the former Chief Justice eloquently concluded, “the future will not be built by machines. It will be built by the values of those who make them.”