Objectives
The main objective of the subject is to map the ethical problems related to artificial intelligence and automatization and to show the possible solutions to these problems. The students get a glimpse into the contemporary situation of AI in terms of technological preparedness and market penetration. The most important ethical frameworks are discussed. While the course addresses both topics in detail, it do not have pre-requisites as it was designed to be accessible for all students of a technical university. At the second part of the semester, the two main topics get synthethized with a particular view to the recent findings and proposals of the related international engineering organizations (IEEE, ACM, VDI, university centres). The problems are framed by using case studies (e.g., ethical concerns of autonomous cars, recommendation systems, ethical problems of browsers with AI, unemployment and AI, AI and issues of world security, rights of AI agents). The examples might change to represent the actual trending topics of the field.
Methodology of teaching
Lectures, optional individual or group exercises.
Materials supporting learning
- Gerdes, J. C., & Thornton, S. M. Implementable ethics for autonomous vehicles. In Autonomes fahren (pp. 87- 102). Springer Vieweg, Berlin, Heidelberg, (2015).
- MIT OpenCourseWare: Engineering Ethics
- https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/engineering-systems-division/esd-932-engineering-ethics-spring-2006/
- Molnár László, Environmental Ethics and Engineering Ethics Courses at the BUTE: What Kind of Ethics Do We Teach? In: Banse, Gerhard, Imre Hronszky, and Gordon L. Nelson, eds. Rationality in an uncertain world. Vol. 5. edition sigma, (2005).
- Downloadable contents:
- IEEE Ethically Aligned Design: A Vision for Prioritizing Human Well-being with Autonomous and Intelligent Systems, https://ethicsinaction.ieee.org/
- European Commission: Ethics guidelines for trustworthy AI: https://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/dae/document.cfm?doc_id=58477
- Verein Deutscher Ingenieure Ethische Grundsätze des Ingenieurberufs, https://www.vdi.de/bildung/ethische-grundsaetze/ethische-grundsaetze/
- IEEE Code of Ethics, https://www.ieee.org/about/corporate/governance/p7-8.html
The slides and notes, as well as the current dates are always avaialble in moodle: edu.gtk.bme.hu