AI, Ethics, and Geoethics (CS 5970)

Module 7: AI, humanity, and employment

Summary

  • This module will take 2 weeks to complete plus you have project work to complete in this period
  • This will mostly come from readings in the books we have started plus a few short movie clips

Overview 

Embodied AI (usually as robots of some form) has been part of science fiction culture for many years.  Sometimes the AI is friendly but often-times, the AI is not.  In this module, we are not focusing so much on the aspect of “will the AI destroy us?” but rather what will AI (in both its current form and perhaps in the future forms) do to our humanity?  How will it affect us now, in the current form of AI?  How will it affect us given biases that exist?  How will it affect us as we move forward?  And as part of this module, will it take away our jobs?  Will it somehow make us less “human?”

 

What happens to humanity with true AI?

Image from Wall-E the movie

Image from the movie Wall-E

Will AI bring dystopian futures to life?

Just for some fun, I found a short clip showing one potential dystopian view of what AI will do to humanity from the movie Wall-E.  If you enjoy the clip and never saw the movie, I recommend it.  It is even related to the geo-ethics part of the course as the reason that Wall-E exists is to clean up the horrible mess that humanity made of the planet!  And it covers a lot of fun topics in AI and humanity as well, including a lovely ending that I won’t spoil.

Here is a short article on the movie and one view of how AI could affect humanity.  

 

Resources for this Module

We are going to return to both of our main books for this module, Race After Technology and Weapons of Math Destruction.  In addition, we will read a really fun set of short stories from Tech Policy Lab.  We will also engage with some additional Ethics Unwrapped modules.  

Assignments

As usual, the assignments are broken into several days though you are welcome to do them in different sized chunks if you prefer.

Day 1

Race After Technology

 

Grading Declarations

OU students, don’t forget to turn in your grading declarations on canvas!  Today’s declaration is called “Module 7: Coded Exposure” 

Day 2

Race After Technology

 

Case Studies and Ethical Principles 

  • (15 min) Read the Ethics Unwrapped page about the Cyberbullying and watch the ethics video at the end.  Note, while this isn’t AI, there is plenty of potential for AI in this situation.  AI could be used to detect cyber harassment or even to perpetuate it (if you don’t believe this, read about Tay)
  • (15 min) Pick one of the discussion questions from their page and discuss in #case-studies
  • (15 min) Discuss ideas on how AI could be used to mitigate cyber harassment (discuss in #case-studies) 

 

Grading Declarations

OU students, don’t forget to turn in your grading declarations on canvas!  There are two for today.  The one for the reading is called “Module 7:  Technological Benevolence” and the one for the case study is called “Module 7: Cyberbullying.”

Day 3

Reading and Video

  • We are going to read something totally different today but it will really get you thinking about AI’s impact on humanity in a different way! 
  • (2 min) As a warm-up and very short video, I want you to watch the trailer for the movie AI
  • (60 min) Read Telling Stories on Culturally Responsive AI.  This is a really fun book full of short stories from a recent workshop held to discuss the impact of AI on humanity and our future.  They wanted to focus on culturally relevant stories and they are great!

 

Short story assignment

Short stories are powerful ways to convey an idea.  For today’s assignment, I want you to write a short story (aim to be under 300 words, though I will not do a word count) in the same idea as the reading for today.  Share your story in #general

Your stories were so awesome that I’m sharing them here so others can see them too!

 

Grading Declarations

OU students, don’t forget to turn in your grading declarations on canvas!  Today’s declaration is called “Module 7: Telling Stories” 

Day 4

Weapons of Math Destruction

 

Case Studies

  • Your case study is already inside the assignment above. 

 

Grading Declarations

OU students, don’t forget to turn in your grading declarations on canvas!  Today’s declaration is called “Module 7: Civilian Casualties.” 

Day 5

Weapons of Math Destruction

 

Case Studies and Ethical Principles 

  • Your case study is already inside the assignment above.

 

Grading Declarations

OU students, don’t forget to turn in your grading declarations on canvas!  Today’s declaration is called “Module 7: Ineligible to Serve” 

Day 6

Weapons of Math Destruction

 

Case Studies and Ethical Principles 

  • (15 min) Read the Ethics Unwrapped page about the Welfare Reform.  Be sure to watch the video at the end also.
  • (15 min) Pick one of the discussion questions from their page and discuss in #case-studies
  • (15 min) Discuss ideas on how AI could be used to help with welfare reform without falling into the WMD traps we have been discussing in the book (discuss in #case-studies)

 

Grading Declarations

OU students, don’t forget to turn in your grading declarations on canvas!  You have two today.  The reading one is called “Module 7: Sweating Bullets” and the case study is called “Module 7: Welfare reform.”