PHL 3102 - Ethics of Digital Technologies and Artificial Intelligence

3 lecture hours 0 lab hours 3 credits

Course Description
This course introduces students to some of the central ethical issues in existing and emerging digital technologies, with an emphasis on the ethics of artificial intelligence (AI). Students will explore topics in digital and AI ethics as they arise in the context of relevant professional areas-such as information science, computer science, software engineering, user experience and design, among others-as well as topics concerning the broader social implications of digital technologies and the ethical challenges they raise. The goal of the course is to critically engage with these topics and cases interactively, studying both their theoretical context and practical implications, so that students can pursue continued, independent reflection on key issues in digital and AI ethics and apply the guiding ethical principles that emerge to their own professional and personal lives.
Prereq: None
Note: None
This course meets the following Raider Core CLO Requirement: Demonstrate Ethical Understanding

Course Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to:

Demonstrate knowledge of existing ethical issues in digital technologies and AI
Anticipate ethical issues arising from emerging digital technologies and developments in AI
Identify the philosophical bases for ethical concerns surrounding digital technologies and AI
Exhibit familiarity with and understanding of established ethical frameworks, concepts, and principles within ethical theory
Connect those theoretical frameworks, concepts, and principles to applied issues
Use those theoretical resources to help understand and resolve the applied issues while at the same time scrutinizing the theoretical principles by evaluating their real-world implications
Evaluate competing considerations about engineers' and designers' moral responsibility for the products they create and services they provide
Engage in independent ethical reasoning on novel problems using theoretical and practical ethical resources learned
Foster ethical behavior and integrity in one's professional and personal life using the theoretical and practical resources learned

Prerequisites by Topic

None

Course Topics

Ethical frameworks, concepts, and principles (consequentialism, deontology, rights, etc.)
Ethics of information, part I: privacy and transparency
Ethics of information, part II: intellectual property, individual liberties, and human rights
Algorithmic bias and social justice
The "black box" explainability problem in deep learning AI
Ethics of human-AI interaction and impact on social relationships
Digital technologies and human well-being: digital media and mental health
Digital technologies and democracy: digital media, misinformation, and political polarization
AI and human work: automation and the meaning of work
Ethics of design and user experience
Ethics of digital advertising and "surveillance capitalism"
Ethics of biometric identification
Artificial moral agency, theory and application (driverless cars, autonomous weapons systems)

Coordinator
Dr. Andrew McAninch

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