Bailey 🕸️🕷️🦇Jul 1, 2023
Greg Wilson
The "ethics in software engineering" classes I've seen use things like Therac-25 as examples, but it seems pretty esoteric to most students, and with near-daily mass shootings in the news, the loss of life does not impress. Does anyone currently teach a software ethics course that focuses primarily on memetic threats, e.g., developers' responsibility/liability w.r.t. disinformation/radicalization that leads to mass killings or targeted harassment? If so, pointers welcome.
Jul 1, 2023 at 3:51pmWeb
Show threadSteve CrawfordJul 1, 2023

@gvwilson there are a lot of examples around AI and misinformation but I can’t find one directly tying it mass shootings though I vague memories of one.

Though plenty of discussion on social medias failures in ethics eg

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s43681-021-00068-x

I also came across this article which is relevant:

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13347-021-00451-w

Facebook’s ethical failures are not accidental; they are part of the business model - AI and Ethics

SpringerLink
Show threadIan Douglas ScottJul 1, 2023

@gvwilson Therac-25 is definitely worth mentioning, but teaching only things like that sends the wrong message: that ethics needn't be a concern for the majority of software developers that never work on things so directly able to end or save lives.

I don't actually know what the ethics class at my university taught because I didn't take it. It wasn't required for "Computer Science", only the "Computer Science and Engineering" major. Maybe that sends the same message.

Show threadAbigail GobenJul 1, 2023
@gvwilson I'd check @cfiesler 's syllabi to start....
Show threadHawkenJul 1, 2023
@gvwilson It's not a course, but https://pointersgonewild.com/2023/05/29/software-bugs-that-cause-real-world-harm/ has a number of more real-life cases (such as furniture delivery schedules, which led to a driver being threatened)
Software Bugs That Cause Real-World Harm

Years ago, when I was an undergraduate student at McGill, I took a software engineering class, and as part of that class, I heard the infamous story of the Therac-25 computer-controlled radiotherap…

Pointers Gone Wild
Show threadAmy J. KoJul 1, 2023
@gvwilson I teach a foundations of information course, which broadly covers ethics, policy, misinformation, disinformation, structural inequities around race, gender, ability, and the connections between all of that and data + algorithms + systems. Here's the book I wrote for it: https://faculty.washington.edu/ajko/books/foundations-of-information
Show threadtoolbear#🪧Jul 1, 2023

@gvwilson
On the AI ethics front, more towards the academic crowd but most do explainers for the tech-savvy or general public, are the wonderful DAIR folks:

https://dair-community.social/public/local

Distributed AI Research Community

A mastodon instance hosted by the Distributed AI Research Institute (DAIR) for those invested in independent, community-rooted AI research.

Mastodon hosted on dair-community.social