Kalev Leetaru, Forbes; Even The Data Ethics Initiatives Don't Want To Talk About Data Ethics
"Two weeks ago, a new data ethics initiative, the Responsible Computer Science Challenge,
caught my eye. Funded by the Omidyar Network, Mozilla, Schmidt Futures
and Craig Newmark Philanthropies, the initiative will award up to $3.5M
to “promising approaches to embedding ethics into undergraduate computer
science education, empowering graduating engineers to drive a culture
shift in the tech industry and build a healthier internet.” I was
immediately excited about a well-funded initiative focused on seeding
data ethics into computer science curricula, getting students talking
about ethics from the earliest stages of their careers. At the same
time, I was concerned about whether even such a high-profile effort
could possibly reverse the tide of anti-data-ethics that has taken root
in academia and what impact it could realistically have in a world in
which universities, publishers, funding agencies and employers have
largely distanced themselves from once-sacrosanct data ethics principles
like informed consent and the right to opt out. Surprisingly, for an
initiative focused on evangelizing ethics, the Challenge declined to
answer any of the questions I posed it regarding how it saw its efforts
as changing this. Is there any hope left for data ethics when the very
initiatives designed to help teach ethics don’t want to talk about
ethics?"
Issues and developments related to ethics, information, and technologies, examined in the ethics and intellectual property graduate courses I teach at the University of Pittsburgh School of Computing and Information. My Bloomsbury book "Ethics, Information, and Technology" will be published in Summer 2025. Kip Currier, PhD, JD
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