Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Robotics have seen dramatic progress in the last several decades. There is increasing excitement and apprehension about the impact of these technologies, deployed in our world and our human society.
Ethics is the discipline within philosophy that considers which actions we humans see as right or wrong, or as good or bad. As we design intelligent artifacts that make their own decisions about how to act, and as they act within the human world, we ask how we can ensure that they will act ethically.
Two important questions arise.
First, like any other powerful technology (e.g. nuclear power, genetic engineering), there are important ethical questions about how AI and robotics technology can and should be deployed, and what its impact will be on society. This topic includes regulations, and the processes by which regulations are proposed, adopted, and enforced.
Second, unlike other technologies, AI (and thus intelligent robotics) involves creating agents that make their own decisions about how to act in the world. Ethics is a kind of foundational knowledge that humans use to decide how to act. We need to understand the structure of that knowledge, so the AIs we create will have the knowledge they need to act appropriately.
Do we mean that humans must be ethical as we design and deploy intelligent systems? Do we mean that the systems we design and deploy must be capable of deciding what is ethical for them to do? Most likely, the answers to both questions will turn out to be “Yes!” The follow-on question is “How do we do that?”
The semester will be organized around six major topic areas:
(1) Safety: Autonomous vehicles and other intelligent agents.
(2) Theory: What is the pragmatic value of ethics in society?
(3) Privacy and bias: Collecting and learning from data.
(4) Rules: How should we regulate AI technology in our society?
(5) Fairness, work, and economic inequality.
(6) Safety again: Are AI and robotics threats to humanity?
In the course of discussing research on these problem areas, we will draw on several concepts from philosophical ethics, but we will also consider perspectives from engineering design, law, economics, evolution, history, human development, etc.
An important question for researchers in artificial intelligence and robotics is how the knowledge relevant to making ethical decisions can be represented computationally in a knowledge base, and how it can be acquired.
The class will meet Mondays and Wednesdays, 4:30 to 6:30 pm, in 2505 GGBL.
The first hour will be a lecture. We anticipate having a number of guest lecturers.
After a stretch break, for the second hour, the class will divide into small discussion groups to consider a given question related to the lecture topic. After 25 minutes, the groups will report back, and we will identify the points of agreement (group consensus) and the points of disagreement (differences in values, trade-offs among values, and conflicts of perspective).
Each student will attend the classes, participate in the discussions, and write two papers.
In the first paper, due at mid-term, you will formulate a question and review the available literature related to that question. The goal of your paper is to identify, clarify, and summarize the major positions on that question.
In the second paper, due at the end of the term, you will pick a question, take a position on how it should be answered, and justify your position, responding clearly to anticipated arguments from critics of that position. Focusing both papers on the same question is not required, but it will obviously make both papers stronger.
Here are two examples (one, two) of published papers by university professors. Each one illustrates both the literature review and the persuasive essay aspects of the papers you will write. Here is a third example (three) of a long literature review that contributes a detailed conceptual structure for its topic. You need not match any of these in length or style, but they are aspirational targets. For your paper, imagine that you are providing detailed help on a particular focused topic, to a friend who wants to get started doing research on that specific topic.
There will be extensive assigned readings, and you will do a literature review on a topic of your choice, which will involve more reading. Be sure that you know how to use Google Scholar and the UM Library's Online Journal collection for tracking down references.
We will try to meet the needs of several distinct audiences with overlapping courses.
This course describes and discusses the ethical issues raised by AI and Robotics, reading and analyzing arguments by other researchers, identifying and posing ethical questions, evaluating potential solutions, and formulating future research questions. Experts from a variety of disciplines will provide guest lectures.
For the undergraduate course (EECS 498), the two papers should demonstrate that you can search, find, and review good quality references beyond those handed out in class, and that you can put your own creative and critical insights into formulating a good problem and exploring solutions to it.
The expectation for the graduate course (EECS 598) will be (a) a deeper and more analytical literature review that identifies more related work beyond what has been handed out in class, and (b) a deeper and more thoughtful final term paper, anticipating and responding more effectively to critics.
EECS 598 has been approved to satisfy the following CSE Graduate Program requirements: depth (not cognate) requirement for the CSE PhD, and the 500-level and technical elective requirements for the CSE MS.
EECS 498 has been approved to satisfy the College of Engineering Intellectual Breadth requirement for the CS-Eng, CE, and DS-Eng majors (as of 11/13/2019; more may be added).
ROB 599 (2-credit graduate cognate course). This course provides an overview of ethical issues in AI and Robotics from the perspectives of a number of disciplines, many represented by guest lectures from experts in computer science, philosophy, cognitive science, psychology, public policy, law, etc.
Students in ROB 599 will attend at least one of the two meetings of the course each week (attendance will be taken). They will be responsible for either the literature review or the final term paper, which will be evaluated to graduate standards.
Since we will be drawing on insights from readings and guest lecturers with different perspectives, it is important for anyone working in this area to remember the important lesson of this children's poem.
This chapter, to appear in the Oxford Handbook of Ethics of AI, provides an overview of most of the topics of the course.
The New York Times is publishing an ongoing series of articles called The Privacy Project. Please look over them, and read the ones you find most interesting.