Intro to Tech/Ethics/Society

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

Introduction to Technology, Ethics, and Society Emerging technologies provide new capabilities for improving our lives. But they can also pose novel and significant risks to our societies. For instance, artificial intelligence systems trained using machine learning techniques and enormous data sets are being deployed for a rapidly increasing number of important tasks. These range from the mundane, such as recommending movies and targeting advertising, to the crucial, as in hiring or even pre-trial detention decisions. These AI systems raise pressing new ethical issues. For instance, many of these systems display discriminatory bias. How can this bias be mitigated? Who should be accountable for ensuring that it is? Moreover, the effectiveness of machine learning depends on collecting huge amounts of information about people, i.e., “big data.” Who should be allowed to collect such data, and what data should be collected? What rights do individuals have to privacy and anonymity? The complexity of these technologies also poses novel problems of governance and accountability. What kinds of explanations are people owed for how an opaque AI system treats them? How can we hold developers and deployers of opaque systems accountable for their behavior? This course explores ethical questions like these that are raised by contemporary artificial intelligence and data-driven technologies. Readings will be drawn from philosophy, computer science, and other related fields. The goal is to prepare students to engage in critical ethical reasoning as developers, users, and stakeholders of new technology.