Ethics and Computer Science
CIS3250
Syllabus, lectures, and other materials — Spring 2022

From Oxford Online, we find these definitions:

   philosophy: The study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence, especially when considered as an academic discipline.

   ethics: Moral principles that govern a person's behaviour or the conducting of an activity.

Syllabus and schedule

Syllabus

Class structure

The Canvas class modules are organized by week; new modules are published on Monday, and most activities for most modules occur in that week.

Other material

Obligatory xkcd collection:

1390:

Research Ethics


1455:

Trolley Problem


1613:

The Three Laws of Robotics


Online Ethics-oriented Resources

Online Ethics Center for Engineering and Science

Collection of ethical code URLs from NC State

Computer and Information Ethics (in particular, see the Uniqueness debate between Maner and Johnson)

Virtue Ethics

Deontological Ethics

Consequentialism

Books

Nick Bostrom: Superintelligence

Isaac Asimov: I, Robot

Norbert Weiner: The Human Use of Human Beings: Cybernetics and Society

Soshana Zuboff: The Age of Surveillance Capitalism

Other

Excerpt from The Grand Design episode of "Yes, Prime Minister"

Class notes

Other Readings

2019-04-05: How China turned a city into a prison

2022-01-11: Intel Deletes Reference to Xianjiang after Backlash in China

2022-01-11: Facial recognition as a Pareto Technology

2022-01-11: Texas cities experience phishing via qr codes attached parking meters

2022-01-11: Air Tag Tracking

2022-01-13: Autonomous Weapons

2022-01-13: Lethal Autonomous Weapons Exist, and They Must Be Banned

2022-01-13: Operation Trojan Shield

2022-01-18: U.S. Airlines Warn of Chaos with the rollout of 5G

2022-01-18: Agricultural Autonomy

2022-01-18: Hume AI

2022-01-18: Will AI Destroy Education?

2022-01-20: The most recent SIGCAS newsletter (2021 Fall)

2022-01-20: The robot revolution continues: the worst warehouse job

2022-01-20: First time: AI named inventor

2022-01-20: Can a robot be arrested? Hold a patent? Pay income taxes

2022-01-20: IRS to require selfies?

2022-01-20: EFF: Williams versus San Francisco

2022-01-20: Dubbing via AI?

2022-01-25: Researchers build AI that builds AI

2022-01-25: The ClearView AI saga continues in Canada

2022-01-25: A right to repair?

2022-01-25: Hacktivists say they hacked Belarus Rail Systems to Stop Russian military buildup

2022-01-25: "Slightly" superhuman hiking?

2022-01-27: Identity theft thrives

2022-01-27: Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs tracking mechanisms

2022-01-27: Britain and AI decision-making

2022-01-27: The rise of the robots in Singapore

2022-01-27: Our automated future?

2022-01-27: ID.ME changes its tune on techniques

2022-01-27: Privacy policies and larger considerations

2022-01-27: AI chatbots, admissions, and ethical risks

2022-01-31: When the algorithm is your boss

2022-02-01: The NSA Spies Shaping the Future

2022-02-02: AlphaCode

2022-02-02: Competitive Programming with AlphaCode

2022-02-07: Ghost dogs on the border

2022-02-08: The future of warfare? (From here

2022-02-08: Throwable robots?

2022-02-08: IRS backs off from biometric measures?

2022-02-10: Google Analytics GDPR Breach

2022-02-10: Zoom

2022-02-10: The trade in surveillance meets the world of arms

2022-01-20: First time: AI named inventor

2022-02-15: Robots face many challenges

2022-02-16: Honorlock?

2022-02-22: Copyright Office answers "no" to AI authorship question

2022-02-22: Open Letter on AI

2022-02-24: EU Proposes Data Laws

2022-02-24: Missouri Governor's Office?

2022-02-24: Employment fraud?

2022-02-25: ACM, Ethics, and Corporate Behavior

2022-03-01: Et tu, Apple?

2022-03-03: Warren and Warner write letter to the Treasury

2022-03-08: Echoes in the Uncanny Valley? (Uncanny Valley explanation)

2022-03-10: Money, fraud, and the Internet: who is responsible?

2022-03-10: Explain yourself?

2022-03-22: Dual use for AI

2022-03-22: Cell phones: knowing where you are...

2022-03-22: Privacy Police?

2022-03-22: Itami: Mass surveillance of the elderly

2022-03-22: My wife tracked me for journalism

2022-03-22: This article is spying on you...

2022-03-24: Tools for good... can these be used for bad?

2021-10-19: The advent of cognitive warfare (draft, version 3)

2021-10-19: Innovation Hub's Cognitive Warfare site

2022-03-29: Clearview AI : Ukraine?

2022-03-29: A Brave New World of Nullities

2022-03-29: Whose fault: autonomous entity or human?

2022-03-29: OpenAI and human augmentation

2022-03-29: Hackers gain power of subpoena through fraudulent emergency data requests

2022-03-30: GPT3 grows more impressive

2022-03-30: How your shadow credit score could be used

2022-03-30: Direct interfaces

2022-03-31: Giordano and battlefields

2022-03-31: What other students in computer ethics are thinking

2022-04-05: Would you hire this AI?

2022-04-05: USB-C madness, technological duplicity

2022-04-05: In praise of desktop computing

2022-04-05: The Thin Edge of the Wedge?

2022-04-05: The Thin Edge, part II? (video)

2022-04-05: More robodogs on military bases

2022-04-07: Advanced Persistent Teens

2022-04-07: Why, Worldcoin?

2022-04-07: DALL-E-2 (NY Times version)

2022-04-07: DALL-E

2022-04-07: Robots in space

2022-04-07: Improving Man-Machine Interfaces

2022-04-07: Imaging AI autonomous entity cleared for use

2022-04-10: AI to make triage decisions on the battlefield?

2022-04-10: Speed Cam Anywhere!

2022-04-10: Double your money!

2022-04-10: ACM: Technology and its impact

2022-04-10: Dall-e-2 Friday

2022-04-13: Caltech graduate sentenced to five years federal prison for presentation on cryptocurrency — in North Korea