New Course Creates Ethical Leaders for an AI-Driven Future; George Mason University, December 10, 2024

Buzz McClain, George Mason University; New Course Creates Ethical Leaders for an AI-Driven Future

"While the debates continue over artificial intelligence’s possible impacts on privacy, economics, education, and job displacement, perhaps the largest question regards the ethics of AI. Bias, accountability, transparency, and governance of the powerful technology are aspects that have yet to be fully answered.

A new cross-disciplinary course at George Mason University is designed to prepare students to tackle the ethical, societal, and governance challenges presented by AI. The course, AI: Ethics, Policy, and Society, will draw expertise from the Schar School of Policy and Government, the College of Engineering and Computing(CEC), and the College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHSS).

The master’s degree-level course begins in spring 2025 and will be taught by Jesse Kirkpatrick, a research associate professor in the CEC, the Department of Philosophy, and codirector of the Mason Autonomy and Robotics Center. 

The course is important now, said Kirkpatrick, because “artificial intelligence is transforming industries, reshaping societal norms, and challenging long-standing ethical frameworks. This course provides critical insights into the ethical, societal, and policy implications of AI at a time when these technologies are increasingly deployed in areas like healthcare, criminal justice, and national defense.”"

WHO kicks off deliberations on ethical framework and tools for social listening and infodemic management; World Health Organization (WHO), February 10, 2023

World Health Organization (WHO) ; WHO kicks off deliberations on ethical framework and tools for social listening and infodemic management

"WHO has convened a panel of experts to discuss ethical considerations in social listening and infodemic management. The aim of the ethics expert panel is to reach a consensus on ethical principles for social listening and other infodemic management activities and provide recommendations for health authorities and researchers.

The panel brings together experts from academia, health authorities, and civil society, with a wide range of expertise such as in biomedical ethics, data privacy, law, digital sociology, digital health, epidemiology, health communication, health promotion, and media studies.

An infodemic is an overabundance information, including misinformation, that surges during a health emergency. During a health emergency, people seek, receive, process and act on information differently than in other times, which makes it even more important to use evidence-based strategies in response. Infodemic management practice, underpinned by the science of infodemiology, has rapidly evolved in the recent years. Tools and experience that were developed during COVID-19 pandemic response have already been applied to other outbreaks, such as ebola, polio and cholera. 

Social listening in public health is the process of gathering information about people's questions, concerns, and circulating narratives and misinformation about health from online and offline data sources. Data gleaned from social media platforms are being used in a number ways to identify and understand outbreaks, geographic and demographic trends, networks, sentiment and behavioral responses to public health emergencies. Offline data collection may include rapid surveys, townhalls, or interviews with people in vulnerable groups, communities of focus and specific populations. These data are then integrated with other data sources from the health system (such as health information systems) and outside of it (mobility data) to generate infodemic insights and inform strategies to manage infodemics.

However, the collection and use of this data presents ethical challenges, such as privacy and consent, and there is currently no agreed-upon ethical framework for social listening and infodemic management. 

The panel will focus on issues such as data control, commercialization, transparency, and accountability, and will consider ethical guidelines for both online and offline data collection, analysis and reporting. The goal is to develop an ethical framework for social listening and infodemic management to guide health authorities when planning and standing up infodemic insights teams and activities, as well as for practitioners when planning and implementing social listening and infodemic management."

The Opportunity for an Ethical Fire Service; Firehouse, June 2, 2021

Kris Blume , Firehouse; The Opportunity for an Ethical Fire Service

Ethics are an integral part of today’s fire departments, and Kris Blume argues that without a consistent and modern ethical framework, departments will decline.

"Inclusivity

Ethics are an integral part of a 21st century fire department and can help to lessen the negative effects that many departments face today. With a consistent ethical framework, departments can become coalescent and create an inclusive working environment for everyone, from probationary firefighter to fire chief. The reciprocal benefit will be demonstrated by each member of the department and the community that’s served. Without this approach to ethics, departments throughout the nation will continue to decline amid higher urban populations that stress outdated ethical frameworks."

Black Mirror’s Charlie Brooker Looks Back on a 2016 as Dark as Any Dystopian Future; Slate, 12/30/16

Sam Adams, Slate; Black Mirror’s Charlie Brooker Looks Back on a 2016 as Dark as Any Dystopian Future

[Kip Currier: Sophie Gilbert's Atlantic article nicely sums up the techno-angst mood of Netflix's Black Mirror TV series-- a technology-infused Information Ethics-y update of Rod Serling's classic Twillight Zone:

 "Black Mirror, a British speculative anthology series created by Charlie Brooker in 2011, considers the murky relationship between humans and technology, the latter of which often threatens to progress so quickly that our ethical frameworks don’t have the chance to catch up."]

"Black Mirror’s Charlie Brooker is best known for exploring dystopian futures, but in Charlie Brooker’s 2016 Wipe, he looks back at a year that was as dark as any future he’s envisioned."