Ethics for Computer Science & Engineering

Spring 2025
Vincenzo D'Andrea | James Brusseau
vincenzo.dandrea@unitn.it | jbrusseau@pace.edu
http://cse.ethicsworkshop.org/
Mondays, A109 17:30 - 19:30 p.m. 
Tuesdays, A107 15:30 - 17:30 p.m. 
UniTrento website

 

Session themes (To be determined)

 

Horizons of technology – potential and problems

What were the original hopes and fears for the digital revolution?

A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace
John Perry Barlow:
https://www.eff.org/cyberspace-independence

Postscript on Societies of Control
Deleuze
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/gilles-deleuze-postscript-on-the-societies-of-control

Ethical Issues in Advanced Artificial Intelligence (Paper clips)
Nick Bostram
https://www.nickbostrom.com/ethics/ai.html

Is there an ethics of algorithms?
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00146-021-01154-8

 

 

Autonomy and Dignity

What does it mean to be free? Why is independence valuable? What is human dignity? How do we know we have it?

The machine defends the machine
For ChatGPT: What is autonomy? How does AI promote human autonomy? What is dignity? How does AI promote human dignity?

Algorithmic Absolution
https://heiup.uni-heidelberg.de/journals/index.php/religions/article/view/23634/17360

A touching app voice. Thinking about ethics of persuasive technology through an analysis of mobile smoking-cessation
https://bit.ly/3Vu5eUo

The Future Is Now: Wearables for Insurance Risk Assessment
https://www.munichre.com/us-life/en/perspectives/wearables/wearables-the-future-is-now-wearables-for-insurance-risk-asses.html

The Effect of Artificial Intelligence on the Human Idea of Free Will
            https://www.atlantis-press.com/article/125968537.pdf

Does AI threaten Human Autonomy? Podcast
https://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/does-ai-threaten-human-autonomy
Carina Prunkl, Jessica Morley, Jonathan Pugh

The Threat of Algocracy: Reality, Resistance and Accommodation
https://philpapers.org/rec/DANTTO-13

Kant

Untangling Research and Practice: What Facebook’s “Emotional Contagion” Study Teaches Us
(2016) danah boyd Research Ethics
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1747016115583379

Dark Patterns at Scale: Findings from a Crawl of 11K Shopping Websites
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1907.07032
(What is the difference between illegitimate “dark patterns” and ordinary interactive design techniques to maximize clicks?)

OK Cupid We Experiment On Human Beings! (+ Comments)
http://web.archive.org/web/20140728192045/http://blog.okcupid.com/index.php/we-experiment-on-human-beings/#expand

 

Authenticity and the Predictable self

What does it mean to be authentic? Do you really want to be who you are?

As opposed to 20th century marketing which sought to create needs and then satisfy them with goods and services, it is now more cost-effective to discern consumers’ true desires (even when they don’t realize them themselves). Predictive analytics combines with big data and market forces to satisfy consumers as they are. Is that satisfying?

NeuroFocus Uses Neuromarketing To Hack Your Brain
https://www.fastcompany.com/1769238/neurofocus-uses-neuromarketing-hack-your-brain

When people say - and believe - they hate what they truly want... (Cheetos)
https://gizmodo.com/a-weird-neuroscientific-explanation-for-why-we-love-che-1691159444

NEMO: Next Career Move Prediction with Contextual Embedding
(AI systems and research revealing professional trajectory)
https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3041021.3054200

AI Systems and Research Revealing Sexual Orientation Case Study
https://datasociety.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/AI-Systems-and-Research-Revealing-Sexual-Orientation_Case-Study_Final.pdf

Deep Neural Networks are More Accurate than Humans at Detecting Sexual Orientation from Facial Images
https://psyarxiv.com/hv28a/

Darwin’s Nose: The Revival of Physiognomy at Stanford University
https://bit.ly/3IcWyyZ

How Target Figured Out A Teen Girl Was Pregnant Before Her Father Did
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/02/16/how-target-figured-out-a-teen-girl-was-pregnant-before-her-father-did/

(Black Mirror “Special Delivery”)

 

Serendipity and Filter Bubbles

Is it possible to predict the unpredictable, to anticipate a user wanting something different from what they believe they want?

Intro to Reinforcement Learning: The Explore-Exploit Dilemma
https://towardsdatascience.com/intro-to-reinforcement-learning-the-explore-exploit-dilemma-463ceb004989

How Netflix uses AI to Predict Your Next Series Binge - 2020
https://blog.re-work.co/how-does-netflix-use-ai-to-predict-your-next-series-binge/

Controlling Polarization in Personalization: An Algorithmic Framework
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3287560.3287601

A Conceptual Tool to Eliminate Filter Bubbles in Social Networks (Overview, literature review)
https://journal.acs.org.au/index.php/ajis/article/download/2867/1023/

Encouraging Reading of Diverse Political Viewpoints with a Browser Widget
Munson, Sean A., Stephanie Y. Lee, and Paul Resnick ICWSM. 2013.
https://www.smunson.com/portfolio/projects/aggdiversity/balancer-icwsm.pdf

Bursting your (filter) bubble: strategies for promoting diverse exposure.
Resnick, Paul, et al. Proceedings of the 2013 conference on Computer supported cooperative work companion. ACM, 2013.
https://www.smunson.com/talks/cscw2013/cscw3pnl-resnick.pdf

Reducing Controversy by Connecting Opposing Views
Garimella, Kiran, et al
http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=3018703

Algorithms as folding: Reframing the analytical focus
(Theory of heterogeneity)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2053951719863819

Dating in the time of "relational filter bubbles": exploring imaginaries, perceptions and tactics of Italian dating app users.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10714421.2019.1704111

Filter Bubbles And Music Streaming: The Influence of Personalization And Recommendation Algorithms on Music Discovery Via Streaming Platforms
https://digital.wpi.edu/downloads/9019s289f?locale=en

Five Tips to Break Through Your Filter(s).
https://hbr.org/2011/10/five-tips-to-break-through-you

 

Privacy, Identity

What is the value of privacy, why do we want it? How much of it will we surrender, and for what? How does privacy intersect with identity? And, who am I? How do I know what my identity is, and where it comes from?

What to do When Privacy is Gone
https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1007&context=cepe_proceedings

Algorithmic anxiety: Masks and camouflage in artistic imaginaries of facial recognition algorithms
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2053951719851532

‘You have one identity’: performing the self on Facebook and LinkedIn
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0163443712468605

A Defence of Informational Structural Realism
https://philpapers.org/rec/FLOADO-5

The Informational Nature of Personal Identity
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/225239120_The_Informational_Nature_of_Personal_Identity

More Than a Show: Using Personalized Immersive Theater to Educate and Engage the Public in Technology Ethics
http://mwskirpan.com/files/QSelfShow.pdf

Divided Minds and the Nature of Persons, Parfit
https://rintintin.colorado.edu/~vancecd/phil375/Parfit.pdf

Personal Identity and Persisting as Many
https://philarchive.org/rec/WEAPIA

Deep Brain Stimulation, Continuity over Time, and the True Self
Nyholm, Sven & O’Neill, Elizabeth (2016). Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics_ 25 (4):647-658)
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/297880452_Deep_Brain_Stimulation_Continuity_over_Time_and_The_True_Self

Technology and Self-modification: Understanding Technologies of the Self After Foucault
https://revistas.ucp.pt/index.php/jsta/article/view/7294/7294

Beyond the Quantified Self: Thematic exploration of a dataistic paradigm
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1461444815609081

How Facebook Outs Sex Workers - Gizmodo
https://gizmodo.com/how-facebook-outs-sex-workers-1818861596

Facial recognition technology can expose political orientation from naturalistic facial images
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-79310-1

Privacy Investigator
https://pi.aiethics.site/

 

Fairness

What is fairness? How does it emerge in a big data context? How does fairness relate to bias?

Predictably unequal: understanding and addressing concerns that algorithmic clinical prediction may increase health disparities
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41746-020-0304-9

Credit denial in the age of AI
https://www.brookings.edu/research/credit-denial-in-the-age-of-ai/

AI Can Vanquish Bias Algorithms we can’t understand can make insurance fairer
https://www.lemonade.com/blog/ai-can-vanquish-bias/

On the Apparent Conflict Between Individual and Group Fairness
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1912.06883

Fairness Definitions Explained
https://fairware.cs.umass.edu/papers/Verma.pdf

AI, Recidivism Risk, and Jail (COMPAS-ProPublica)
The COMPAS-ProPublica debate about bias in algorithmic recidivism assessments. What happens when AI evaluates who stays in jail, and who gets out on bail, or on parole?

AI Hiring

What happens when AI evaluates job candidates?

 

Social welfare, sustainability, toxicity, Content moderation, safety

Does AI benefit or harm social wellbeing? In what ways, when, where and how?

Human-centered mechanism design with Democratic AI – Wealth inequality
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-022-01383-x

Industry 4.0 in Finance: The Impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on Digital Financial Inclusion
https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7072/8/3/45

The role of artificial intelligence in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-14108-y

Spotify To Encourage Users to Listen To More Female Podcasters And Artists Podcast News Daily
http://www.insideradio.com/podcastnewsdaily/spotify-to-encourage-users-to-listen-to-more-female-podcasters-and-artists/article_483e8902-8035-11eb-a945-4f713f6e598f.html

Why We Should Have Seen That Coming: Comments on Microsoft’s Tay “Experiment,” and Wider Implications
https://digitalcommons.sacredheart.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1104&context=computersci_fac

Contesting algorithms: Restoring the public interest in content filtering by artificial intelligence
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2053951720932296

Nonsense can make sense to machine-learning models
https://news.mit.edu/2021/nonsense-can-make-sense-machine-learning-models-1215

 

Explainability, transparency, interpretability and Accountability

Algorithmic systems may produce unintended results, which in some cases cause harm. Who should be held liable? How can organizations using analytics manage those risks?

Computer says no: why making AIs fair, accountable and transparent is crucial
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/nov/05/computer-says-no-why-making-ais-fair-accountable-and-transparent-is-crucial

The AI explainability vs performance paradox
https://phrasee.co/futureaihub/the-ai-explainability-vs-performance-paradox/

When Algorithms Mess Up, the Nearest Human Gets the Blame (“moral crumple zones”)
MIT Technology Review, May 28, 2019
https://www.technologyreview.com/2019/05/28/65748/ai-algorithms-liability-human-blame/

Explaining Explanations in AI
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1811.01439

Seeing without knowing: Limitations of the transparency ideal and its application to algorithmic accountability
http://mike.ananny.org/papers/anannyCrawford_seeingWithoutKnowing_2016.pdf

Stop Explaining Black Box Machine Learning Models for High Stakes Decisions and Use Interpretable Models Instead
https://www.nature.com/articles/s42256-019-0048-x

Public attitudes value interpretability but prioritize accuracy in Artificial Intelligence
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-33417-3

How Humans Judge Machines
https://www.judgingmachines.com/s/HHJM-mobile-edit2021sm.pdf

In defense of the black box
https://par.nsf.gov/servlets/purl/10101197

The four dimensions of contestable AI diagnostics- A patient-centric approach to explainable AI
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0933365720301330

Is Effective Regulation of AI Possible? Eight Potential Regulatory Problems by John Danaher (Philosophical Disquistions 2015).
https://philosophicaldisquisitions.blogspot.com/2015/07/is-effective-regulation-of-ai-possible.html

ExAID: A Multimodal Explanation Framework for Computer-Aided Diagnosis of Skin Lesions
http://arxiv.org/pdf/2201.01249v1

 

Causal AI

AI is knowledge produced from pattern recognition, can causality be wrapped around AI functioning? Why would we want that?

Judea Pearl article or video

Causal discovery in machine learning: Theories and applications
https://www.aimsciences.org/article/doi/10.3934/jdg.2021008

Artificial Intelligence is stupid and causal reasoning won’t fix it
https://arxiv.org/abs/2008.07371

From association to causation: some remarks on the history of statistics
Journal de la société française
https://www.stat.berkeley.edu/~census/521.pdf

The Art and Science of Cause and Effect
http://bayes.cs.ucla.edu/BOOK-2K/causality2-epilogue.pdf

 

Trustworthy versus reliable AI, and responsibility

The ethics of the question about whether AI should be trustworthy or reliable, and why the question matters.

In AI We Trust: Ethics, Artificial Intelligence, and Reliability
Trustworthy v Reliability
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11948-020-00228-y

AI & Global Governance: No One Should Trust AI
UN University, Joanna Bryson, Nov. 13, 2018
https://cpr.unu.edu/publications/articles/ai-global-governance-no-one-should-trust-ai.html

 

Driverless cars

What ethical dilemmas arise with autonomous vehicles?

Our Driverless Dilemma: When Should Your Car be Willing to Kill You?
http://projects.iq.harvard.edu/files/mcl/files/greene-driverless-dilemma-sci16.pdf

Ethics of connected and automated vehicles (EU overview)
https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/5014975b-fcb8-11ea-b44f-01aa75ed71a1

Moral Machine
https://www.moralmachine.net/

 

Sentience/Robot Rights

Can AI think? Could robots have ethical rights and responsibilities?

Attachment Theory as a Framework to Understand Relationships with Social Chatbots: A Case Study of Replika
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/357665581_Attachment_Theory_as_a_Framework_to_Understand_Relationships_with_Social_Chatbots_A_Case_Study_of_Replika

Good friendships improve our lives. But can virtual friendships be good
https://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10289/14486/Good%20Friendships%20Improve%20our%20Lives.pdf

Should We Treat Teddy Bear 2.0 as a Kantian Dog? Four Arguments for the Indirect Moral Standing of Personal Social Robots, with Implications for Thinking About Animals and Humans
https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s11023-020-09554-3.pdf

Debunking Robot Rights Metaphysically, Ethically, and Legally
https://robots.law.miami.edu/2021/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Birhane_et_al_Debunking_Robot_Rights_Metaphysically__Ethically_and_Legally_ConfDraft.pdf

 

NLP Powered Chatbot/Digital Agents

The ethics of generic chat and mimetic impersonation.

Google just gave a stunning demo of Assistant making an actual phone call
https://www.theverge.com/2018/5/8/17332070/google-assistant-makes-phone-call-demo-duplex-io-2018

Mimetic Models: Ethical Implications of AI that Acts Like You
https://arxiv.org/abs/2207.09394

Meet The Robot That's Trying To Seduce Women On OkCupid
Girls Who Date Computers is one disillusioned New Yorker's quest to expose the banality of online dating. Does it go too far?
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/josephbernstein/meet-the-robot-thats-trying-to-seduce-women-on-okcupid

New chatbot therapist to help combat depression unveiled 2019
https://www.healtheuropa.com/chatbot-therapist-to-combat-depression-un/93609/

When Should We Use Care Robots? The Nature-of-Activities Approach
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5102960/

In conversation with Artificial Intelligence: aligning language models with human values
https://arxiv.org/abs/2209.00731

Distinct but Effective Neural Networks for Facial Emotion Recognition in Individuals with Autism: A Deep Learning Approach
disi.unitn.it/~riccardi/papers2/INSAR_JMM_2019_Deep_Learning.pdf

 

Healthcare Tech, Data ownership, Mimetic AI

Privacy, and personal interest versus public interest.

A.I. Versus M.D.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/04/03/ai-versus-md

The Ethics of Big Data: Current and Foreseeable Issues in Biomedical Contexts
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Brent-Mittelstadt/publication/277079050_The_Ethics_of_Big_Data_Current_and_Foreseeable_Issues_in_Biomedical_Contexts/links/556493b808ae06101abdf782/The-Ethics-of-Big-Data-Current-and-Foreseeable-Issues-in-Biomedical-Contexts.pdf

A socio-technical framework for digital contact tracing (Covid)
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590123020300694

Ethical guidelines for COVID-19 tracing apps
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-01578-0

Represent me: please! Towards an ethics of digital twins in medicine
Matthias Braun
https://jme.bmj.com/content/47/6/394

A South Korean Chatbot Shows Just How Sloppy Tech Companies Can Be With User Data
https://slate.com/technology/2021/04/scatterlab-lee-luda-chatbot-kakaotalk-ai-privacy.html

Own Data? Ethical Reflections on Data Ownership
https://www.researchgate.net/journal/Philosophy-Technology-2210-5441/publication/342188494_Own_Data_Ethical_Reflections_on_Data_Ownership/links/5fc464e092851c933f76a50b/Own-Data-Ethical-Reflections-on-Data-Ownership.pdf

Assessing Trustworthy AI in times of COVID-19. Deep Learning for predicting a multi-regional score conveying the degree of lung compromise in COVID-19 patients
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=9845195

Emotion-based Modeling of Mental Disorders on Social Media
https://arxiv.org/abs/2201.09451

AI and Accessibility: A Discussion of Ethical Considerations
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/uploads/prod/2019/08/ai4a-ethics-CACM-viewpoint-arxiv-updated.pdf

 

Surveilled Scored Society, FR + Surveillance China

The ethics of surveillance by society for society’s benefit. China’s Social Credit System endeavors to make algorithmic decision making ubiquitous in society. Is it concerning, and is it different from algorithmic scoring systems elsewhere?

 

Foucault’s Panopticon
https://cla.purdue.edu/academic/english/theory/newhistoricism/modules/foucaultcarceral.html

The complicated truth about China's social credit system
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/china-social-credit-system-explained

China's Social Credit System: An Evolving Practice of Control
R. Creemers, University of Leiden, 2018.
http://www.iberchina.org/files/2018/social_credit_china.pdf

China’s Social Credit Systems and Public Opinion: Explaining High Levels of Approval.
Genia Kostka, Freie Universität Berlin, 2018.
https://bit.ly/3PXmO1Y

The Secret Trust Scores Companies Use to Judge Us All
Wall Street Journal, 2019
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-secret-trust-scores-companies-use-to-judge-us-all-11554523206

AI-powered Public Surveillance Systems: why we (might) need them and how we want them
https://bit.ly/3vkorgD

To predict and to manage. Predictive policing in the United States
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2053951719861703

AI Monitored Driver
Video and artificial intelligence monitoring of drivers promises safety, but what do we sacrifice when the machine stops us from ever breaking the law?
https://youtu.be/zDru4JY2Wfw

A woman walks into a bar wearing Google Glass and begins filming. Ethical issues follow.
https://youtu.be/7393zkXBMc8

Tinder Live, Big Data, Privacy / Google Glass: Ethics and Glassholes
The ethics of big data and privacy in the Tinder Live comedy show.
https://youtu.be/09lLGPWMYNY

 

Surveillance Capitalism Society

The ethics of surveillance by private enterprises for economic benefit.

 

Deleuze: Postscript on Societies of Control
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/gilles-deleuze-postscript-on-the-societies-of-control

Big other: Surveillance Capitalism and the Prospects of an Information Civilization
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/epdf/10.1057/jit.2015.5

 

Surveillance humanism

The ethics of surveillance by organizations enterprises for humanitarian benefit.

 

Biometrics in the Humanitarian Sector
https://policy-practice.oxfam.org/resources/biometrics-in-the-humanitarian-sector-620454/

Between Surveillance and Recognition: Rethinking Digital Identity in Aid
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/20539517211006744

Digital identity: Contemporary challenges for data protection, privacy and non-discrimination rights
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2053951719855091

 

AGI, World without theory (Anderson) w/o causation

What powers of thought are possessed by AI? How does AI knowledge production compare with the human version?

The End of Theory: The Data Deluge Makes the Scientific Method Obsolete
https://www.wired.com/2008/06/pb-theory/

Could Big Data be the end of theory in science?
https://www.embopress.org/doi/epdf/10.15252/embr.201541001

Our Machines Now Have Knowledge We’ll Never Understand
https://www.wired.com/story/our-machines-now-have-knowledge-well-never-understand/

Computer machinery and intelligence (Turing)
http://cs.oswego.edu/~apilon/COG468/Classic%20Paper%201.pdf

Minds, brains, and programs  (Searle Chinese room against AGI)
https://home.csulb.edu/~cwallis/382/readings/482/searle.minds.brains.programs.bbs.1980.pdf

Chinese Room: https://youtu.be/rHKwIYsPXLg?t=661

Big Data, new epistemologies and paradigm shifts
Kitchen
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2053951714528481

On the Limit of Artificial Intelligence
Yuk Hui
https://philpapers.org/rec/HUIOTL

What Robots Can't Do
Pasquale
https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/what-robots-cant-do

AGI Debate, Montreal AI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGiLz_Jx9uI

 

Transhumanism, VR  Chalmers, Reality +

What are the physical limits of my reasoning and identity?

Extended Mind, Andy Clark and David Chalmers
https://icds.uoregon.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Clark-and-Chalmers-The-Extended-Mind.pdf

Reality + Chalmers podcast
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hePEg_h90KI

 

Philosophy and AI

Descartes on the separateness of mind and body
https://www3.nd.edu/~jspeaks/courses/2018-19/30304/handouts/descartes-mind-body.pdf

Foucault, Deleuze, and the Ethics of Digital Networks
https://www.academia.edu/14049066/Foucault_Deleuze_and_the_ethics_of_digital_networks

The surveillant assemblage
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Kevin-Haggerty-3/publication/12188129_The_Surveillant_Assemblage/links/6250f99e4f88c3119ceb661d/The-Surveillant-Assemblage.pdf

Reality
Plato and Simulacrum, Deleuze
https://engl328.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/deleuze-plato-and-the-simulacrum.pdf

Simulacra Simulation,
Baudrillard
http://cast.b-ap.net/arc619f17/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2017/08/Baudrillard-SimulacraSimulation.pdf

Epistemology of data science
The epistemological foundations of data science: a critical review
https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s11229-022-03933-2.pdf?pdf=button

How do data come to matter? Living and becoming with personal data
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2053951718786314

From data politics to the contentious politics of data
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2053951719885967

Anthropologist for Intel describes big data as a person Tech Web TV. Retrieved December 3, 2014
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVB6_QP_2s0

Other themes

  • AI Applies AI Ethics to AI
  • AI Human Condition