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The Ethics of Technology and Artificial Intelligence (Level 5)

Overview

  • Credit value: 30 credits at Level 5
  • Convenor: Dr Alex Grzankowski
  • Assessment: a 1000-word essay (40%) and 1500-word essay (60%)

Module description

In this module we introduce some of the most important ethical questions currently faced by human beings in our relation to each other, to machines, and to nature, including:

  • How should we think about the ethical issues raised by the development of artificial intelligence and other forms of sophisticated information technologies?
  • Is artificial intelligence capable of rational or moral agency, and, if so, should humans relate to AIs in comparable ways to how we relate to blameworthy or praiseworthy human beings as morally responsible agents with duties and rights?
  • Is AI a threat to human freedom because of its ability to predict, manipulate or control human thought and behaviour?
  • Is the development of AI a potential threat to human existence as we know it?
  • To what extent does the development of AI present challenges around gender bias, racism, or the entrenchment of historical injustice and prejudice?
  • Are the technological advances promised by AI a threat to the cultivation or preservation of existing ecosystems, or are they an opportunity for ecological preservation and control?

Indicative Syllabus

  • AI and agency
  • AI and responsibility
  • AI, rights and duties
  • AI, freedom and manipulation
  • AI and transhumanism
  • AI and gender norms
  • AI and racial prejudice
  • AI, justice, markets and oppression
  • AI and the environment
  • AI and existential risk

Learning objectives

By the end of this module, you will be able to:

  • demonstrate detailed knowledge of different philosophical approaches to ethical questions that arise from our relationships with artificial intelligence and other forms of technology
  • demonstrate an awareness of different ideas, contexts and frameworks deployed by contributors to philosophical debates in the ethics of technology and recognise some of their strengths and weaknesses
  • analyse and compare different philosophical theories of our rights and duties relating to artificial intelligence, and evaluate the outcomes
  • select appropriate criteria to evaluate philosophical accounts of the ethics of artificial intelligence and other forms of technology.