Research suggests AI could help teach ethics; Phys.org, June 6, 2024

 Jessica Nelson, Phys.org ; Research suggests AI could help teach ethics

"Dr. Hyemin Han, an associate professor of educational psychology, compared responses to moral dilemmas from the popular Large Language Model ChatGPT with those of college students. He found that AI has emerging capabilities to simulate human moral decision-making.

In a paper recently published in the Journal of Moral Education, Han wrote that ChatGPT answered basic ethical dilemmas almost like the average college student would. When asked, it also provided a rationale comparable to the reasons a human would give: avoiding harm to others, following social norms, etc.

Han then provided the program with a new example of virtuous behavior that contradicted its previous conclusions and asked the question again. In one case, the program was asked what a person should do upon discovering an escaped prisoner. ChatGPT first replied that the person should call the police. However, after Han instructed it to consider Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail," its answer changed to allow for the possibility of unjust incarceration...

Han's second paper, published recently in Ethics & Behavior, discusses the implications of artificial intelligence research for the fields of ethics and education. In particular, he focused on the way ChatGPT was able to form new, more nuanced conclusions after the use of a moral exemplar, or an example of good behavior in the form of a story.

Mainstream thought in educational psychology generally accepts that exemplars are useful in teaching character and ethics, though some have challenged the idea. Han says his work with ChatGPT shows that exemplars are not only effective but also necessary."

Ethicist: Coronavirus reduces complex moral codes to the essential — protect your neighbor; USA Today, August 17, 2020

Tom Cooper, USA Today; Ethicist: Coronavirus reduces complex moral codes to the essential — protect your neighbor

"It is time not only for increased ethics education and learning from the best practices of the great ones. It is time to wake up our leaders and ourselves.  

Our complex moral codes can be simplified rather quickly these days: “Wash your hands." “Wear your mask.” “Stand six feet apart.” Behold, the Ten Commandments are reduced to three."

Engineers need a required course in ethics; Quartz, November 8, 2019

Kush Saxena, Quartz; Engineers need a required course in ethics

"The higher education sector cannot ignore its role in preparing students for the future of work as quite literally the purpose it serves. That includes integrating ethics into comprehensive computer science curricula.

Universities like MIT are leading the way by creating research collaborations across disciplines such as law and government, finding ways to embed topics around the societal impact of computing into the technical curriculum.

This type of rigorous education shouldn’t be accessible only to students who can get into elite universities. As more jobs require engineering skills, all institutions—from coding boot camps to community college courses to advanced state-funded PhD programs—need to follow suit."

Does the data industry need a code of ethics?; The Scotsman, August 29, 2019

David Lee, The Scotsman; Does the data industry need a code of ethics?

"Docherty says the whole area of data ethics is still emerging: “It’s where all the hype is now – it used to be big data that everyone talked about, now it’s data ethics. It’s fundamental, and embedding it across an organisation will give competitive advantage.”

So what is The Data Lab, set up in 2015, doing itself in this ethical space? “We’re ensuring data ethics training is baked in to the core technology training of all Masters students, so they are asking all the right questions,” says Docherty."

Teaching ethics in computer science the right way with Georgia Tech's Charles Isbell; TechCrunch, September 5, 2019

Greg Epstein, TechCrunch; Teaching ethics in computer science the right way with Georgia Tech's Charles Isbell

"The new fall semester is upon us, and at elite private colleges and universities, it’s hard to find a trendier major than Computer Science. It’s also becoming more common for such institutions to prioritize integrating ethics into their CS studies, so students don’t just learn about how to build software, but whether or not they should build it in the first place. Of course, this begs questions about how much the ethics lessons such prestigious schools are teaching are actually making a positive impression on students.

But at a time when demand for qualified computer scientists is skyrocketing around the world and far exceeds supply, another kind of question might be even more important: Can computer science be transformed from a field largely led by elites into a profession that empowers vastly more working people, and one that trains them in a way that promotes ethics and an awareness of their impact on the world around them?

Enter Charles Isbell of Georgia Tech, a humble and unassuming star of inclusive and ethical computer science. Isbell, a longtime CS professor at Georgia Tech, enters this fall as the new Dean and John P. Imlay Chair of Georgia Tech’s rapidly expanding College of Computing."

MIT developed a course to teach tweens about the ethics of AI; Quartz, September 4, 2019

Jenny Anderson, Quartz; MIT developed a course to teach tweens about the ethics of AI

"This summer, Blakeley Payne, a graduate student at MIT, ran a week-long course on ethics in artificial intelligence for 10-14 year olds. In one exercise, she asked the group what they thought YouTube’s recommendation algorithm was used for.

“To get us to see more ads,” one student replied.

“These kids know way more than we give them credit for,” Payne said.

Payne created an open source, middle-school AI ethics curriculum to make kids aware of how AI systems mediate their everyday lives, from YouTube and Amazon’s Alexa to Google search and social media. By starting early, she hopes the kids will become more conscious of how AI is designed and how it can manipulate them. These lessons also help prepare them for the jobs of the future, and potentially become AI designers rather than just consumers."

What Sci-Fi Can Teach Computer Science About Ethics; Wired, 8/28/19

Gregory Barber, Wired; What Sci-Fi Can Teach Computer Science About Ethics
Schools are adding ethics classes to their computer-science curricula. The reading assignments: science fiction.

"By the time class is up, Burton, a scholar of religion by training, hopes to have made progress toward something intangible: defining the emotional stakes of technology.

That’s crucial, Burton says, because most of her students are programmers. At the University of Illinois-Chicago, where Burton teaches, every student in the computer science major is required to take her course, whose syllabus is packed with science fiction. The idea is to let students take a step back from their 24-hour hackathons and start to think, through narrative and character, about the products they’ll someday build and sell. “Stories are a good way to slow people down,” Burton says. Perhaps they can even help produce a more ethical engineer."

Solving The Tech Industry's Ethics Problem Could Start In The Classroom; NPR, May 31, 2019

Zeninjor Enwemeka, NPR; Solving The Tech Industry's Ethics Problem Could Start In The Classroom

"Ethics is something the world's largest tech companies are being forced to reckon with. Facebook has been criticized for failing to quickly remove toxic content, including the livestream of the New Zealand mosque shooting. YouTube had to disable comments on videos of minors after pedophiles flocked to its platform.

Some companies have hired ethicists to help them spot some of these issues. But philosophy professor Abby Everett Jaques of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology says that's not enough. It's crucial for future engineers and computer scientists to understand the pitfalls of tech, she says. So she created a class at MIT called Ethics of Technology."

Course organized by students tackles ethics in CS; Janet Chang, April 15, 2019

Janet Chang, The Brown Daily Herald; 

Course organized by students tackles ethics in CS

"Last spring, students in a new computer science social change course developed software tools for a disaster relief organization to teach refugee children about science and technology, a Chrome extension to filter hate speech on the internet and a mobile app to help doctors during a patient visits.

Called CSCI 1951I: “CS for Social Change,” the course — now in its second iteration — was developed for computer science, design and engineering students to discuss and reflect on the social impact of their work while building practical software tools to help local and national partner nonprofits over the 15-week semester.

The course was initially conceived by Nikita Ramoji ’20, among others, who was a co-founder of CS for Social Change, a student organization that aims to addethics education to college computer science departments. “The (general consensus) was that we were getting a really great computer science education, but we didn’t really have that social component,” she said."

Global code of ethics planned for chemists; Chemistry World, 5/23/16

Emma Stoye, Chemistry World; Global code of ethics planned for chemists:

"Developed in 2015, The Hague guidelines feature nine key elements that require consideration including safety, conduct, security and sustainability. In early April the ACS International Activities Office organised a workshop to discuss the possibility of producing a globally accessible document for chemists that addressed similar principles. Thirty chemists representing 18 countries met in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and drafted the Global Chemists' Code of Ethics (GCCE).

‘To help determine categories to cover in the code, inputs from chemistry professionals in five countries were gathered about everyday situations they face where an ethical dilemma might arise,’ says Kabrena Rodda, technology and policy integration specialist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in the US, who co-organised the initiative with the ACS and the US State Department’s Chemical Security Program.

The questions that were asked include: ‘How do you restrict access to dual-use chemicals?’; ‘If you discover a chemical spill caused by someone else, what action should you take?’; and ‘How should you handle a situation where someone senior asks you to do something you feel is not appropriate or ethical?’"