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Ethics in Artificial Intelligence—CSC484

Professor Clark Elliott

Take a walk on the truly wild side with Ethics in AI class!

Waves of novel AI applications are coming to our world. These range from the phenomenally powerful and useful (self-driving cars) to the outright terrifying (automated fake news). In this course we will use the algorithmic thinking and logic we are all comfortable with as computer scientists to explore many aspects of ethical dilemmas facing us as this modern computational paradigm unfolds around us.

Organization: This course is primarily based on the lectures, the readings and on extensive online discussion. There may be some light programming / use of AI tools as we become familiar with the technology. There will be an (algorithmic) writing component as I occasionally call on you to structure the outline of your arguments in a more formal way. The class is asynchronous, so you can work ahead by following the study guides and quizzes, but discussions will follow a progressive schedule. There will be informal Zoom meetings most weeks as well for those who want to check in as part of our community.

Grading: The focus is on online discussion participation mimicking an in-class lecture/discussion seminar. There will be: small study guides/quizzes based on the lectures and readings, and exams on the same; small written outline assignments; an ethics ideas journal, and a final ethics paper.

Prerequisites: CSC480 or instructor consent (elliott@depaul.edu) this quarter, where we are primarily looking for students able to read / listen to lectures and then discuss sophisticated high-level ideas. I prefer not to exclude students in the Winter 2021 quarter over prerequisites.

CSC484 is one of the core courses in the new Artificial Intelligence Degree offered by DePaul (January 2021) and qualifies as an AI concentration course in CS as well.


Have some fun here with a few interesting ethical problems in AI: