Readings on ethics and machine learning

We will use the last two weeks of the semester to explore perspectives on machine learning and related areas. I'm calling this ethics and machine learning for short, but in reality the topics will span a wider net than just ethics per se, and they will touch more generally on data science and artificial intelligence, not just machine learning in particular.

There are three things you need to do:

• You need to read the readings!
• You need to send me a very brief response before class for each set of readings.
• You need to write a short reflection paper.

Meanwhile you also will be finishing the last two project (SVM and PCA), and so I will try to keep these as lightweight as possible. At the same time, I think this is a key part of the course, and I want to make sure you give competent attention to the readings and the issues that they bring up.

These fit in under your participation grade, as described on the syllabus.

1. The readings

I am distributing hard copies of all the readings. This is so that you will bring them with you to class without an electronic device. I should have written on the hard copies of the reading which class days they correspond to. Here is a list of the readings and which day to read them for:

• For Monday, April 22 (bias in algorithms):
  • Jeffrey Dastin, "Amazon scraps secret AI recruiting tool that showed bias against women". Reuters.
  • Christopher Mims, "Our software is biased like we are. Can new laws change that?" The Wall Street Journal.
  • "Biased bots: Human prejudices sneak into artificial intelligence systems". Phys.org.
  • Kate Crawford. "Artificial intelligence's white guy problem." The New York Times.
• For Wednesday, April 24 (various):
  • From Cathy O'Neil, Weapons of Math Destruction.
  • The Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. Artificial Intelligence: An Evangelical Perspective.
• For Friday, April 26 (learning and obscurity):
  • Alison Gopnik. "AIs versus four-year-olds." From Brockman (ed), Possible Minds.
  • Jordan Monson. "Curiosity propels my toddler to learn. Will computers ever compare?" Christianity Today.
  • Judea Pearl. "The limitations of opaque learning machines." From Brockman (ed), Possible Minds.
  • Will Knight. "The dark secret at the heart of AI." MIT technology review.
• For Monday, April 29 (machine learning and healthcare):
  • From Nick Polson and James Scott, AIQ.
  • Angela Lashbrook. "AI-driven dermatology could leave dark-skinned patients behind." The Atlantic.
  • Samuel Finlayson et al. "Adversarial attacks on medical machine learning." Science Magazine.
• For Wednesday, April 24 (ethical algorithms):
  • Laurel Wamsley. "Should self-driving cars have ethics?" NPR news.
  • Randy Rieland. "Can machines learn morality?" Smithsonian Magazine.
  • From Paul Daugherty and James Wilson, Human + Machine.

2. The responses

Before each of the class meetings listed above, email me a response to the readings. For the sake of your and my time, the shortest response that demonstrates that you have read and thought about the readins is acceptable. One good sentence per reading may be enough. I would prefer your response to be in the body of an email rather than as an attachment, but I'll read whatever you send.

3. The reflection

Please choose one reading (or one topic from the readings) that interests you and give a more thorough response to it. Write a paper (target length two pages) in which you

• Identify the ethical (or social, etc) problem or issue.
• Identify the technical issues that affect the problem or issue. Indicate how the things we studied in this course inform your understanding of the problem or issue.
• Identify ways that the Bible and Christian theology inform a response to the problem or issue.
• Give and defend your position on the problem or issue.

Please turn this in by email (PDF is preferred) or through Schoology, whichever you prefer.

This reflection paper is due on reading day (technically midnight between Monday, May 6 and Tuesday, May 7). I generally avoid having anything due during finals week in order to avoid having an assignment compete with your studying for finals. In this case I decided to make it due reading day instead of the last day of classes because project 4 is already due the last day of classes, and this will give you a little more flexibility. Certainly you should feel free (and be encouraged) to turn in the reflection paper earlier.