ETHICAL REASONING SEM (ECC490W)
(05/22/2023-06/09/2023)
Course Memo
Prerequisite: Senior Standing.
The purpose of this senior seminar is to help students assess what they have learned as undergraduate students and translate that learning into their behavior in the world. The course also acts as a bridge to life-long learning. Classes are conducted in a discussion format and address a broad range of ethical questions on which individual courses will focus. Ethical Reasoning Capability course.
Course Section Description
Ethics and Artificial Intelligence:
AI systems are increasingly becoming an everyday part of our lives. Artificial intelligence continues to develop at a rapid pace. As our use of AI becomes more dependent and embedded, it raises important moral and ethical questions. How do we align the aims and values of autonomous systems with our own? Does the future of AI pose any existential threat or danger to human life? How do we prevent learning algorithms from developing morally questionable (such as racial and gender discriminatory) biases? Should self-guided AI systems be used to kill enemies in warfare? What is the relation between AI systems and social relations (could a person fall in love with an AI system)? What rules or principles should govern the use of self-driving vehicles? What is the moral status of increasingly sophisticated AI systems (at what point would/could an AI system enter the moral community or suffer moral injury)? If an AI system could be considered a moral agent, would it possess rights and moral/legal accountability? What is the relation between human minds/consciousness and the processing intelligence of machines?
