Admission requirements
Not applicable.
Description
Ethics is the academic field dealing with the question of what's right and what's wrong. Ethics is relevant for AI in three ways:
1. How to make AI systems that behave rightly? (This is particularly relevant for autonomous systems such as self-driving cars and self-shooting weapons.)
2. How to behave rightly as a professional in the field of AI and/or data science? (This is particularly relevant for you – students.)
3. What to think of numerous changes and developments caused by AI – are they right or wrong? (Like some of the questions beneath.)
All three aspects of AI & ethics will be discussed in this course, but the main part is about the third bullet: What to think of new possibilities, enabled by AI? Examples of such issues include:
What if there would be intelligent surveillance cameras everywhere?
Is it okay to use a chatbot for writing an assignment?
Who is to blame for discrimination by AI?
Will AI cause mass unemployment?
When do you trust an autonomous killer weapon?
This is a relatively practical course: the aim is to help you to deal with ethical issues that you can encounter later in your career. (In contrast to a more academic course that deals with abstract ideas about AI & ethics.) It's also supposed to be pleasant course for students. (Ethics itself is serious enough.) So besides more formal content from textbooks, we will use concrete and interesting cases from e.g. movies, documentaries, novels etc.
Course objectives
After the course students should / should be able to:
1. Know the various schools in ethics.
2. Know various possible ethical issues in AI.
3. Understand the relation between ethics & science.
4. Apply ethical theory to numerous cases in AI.
5. Reason academically on ethical issues.
6. Reflect on ones academic responsibilities.
7. Critcally reflect on the role of values in academics.
8. Formulate own opinions and provide argumentation.
Timetable
In MyTimetable, you can find all course and programme schedules, allowing you to create your personal timetable. Activities for which you have enrolled via MyStudyMap will automatically appear in your timetable.
Additionally, you can easily link MyTimetable to a calendar app on your phone, and schedule changes will be automatically updated in your calendar. You can also choose to receive email notifications about schedule changes. You can enable notifications in Settings after logging in.
Questions? Watch the video, read the instructions, or contact the ISSC helpdesk.
Note: Joint Degree students from Leiden/Delft need to combine information from both the Leiden and Delft MyTimetables to see a complete schedule. This video explains how to do it.
Mode of instruction
Each week the following pattern repeats:
1. Students are informally introduced in the content of the week in an oral lecture.
2. Students get a deeper understanding by reading texts.
3. Students apply their knowledge in a tutorial.
4. Students make the content "their own" by writing a text. (This happens every other week.)
Assessment method
Each week there is a short ANS test, to check if students read the reading material.
Attendance to the tutorials is obligatory.
Students write two short columns (of about 500 words) during the course, and a larger essay (of about 1000 words) at the end of it.
And finally, the students end the course with a written exam.
The exam counts for 50% of the final grade; the essay for 25%; and both short columns for 12,5% each.
The ANS tests are not graded; these tests are just a condition to pass the course. At the end of the course a student should have answered at least half the questions correctly. If not, the student should do a short additional test, right before the regular exam. In case of a deficiency (missing too many tutorials or a fail), the teacher will make a custom additional assignment. The size of this assignment depends on the number of deficiencies. (A student may miss one tutorial.)
Moreover, the teacher is entitled to invite students for a short discussion about their writings, if that seems appropriate. And finally the teacher will inform the students how the inspection of and follow-up discussion of the exams will take place.
Reading list
Reading material is published on BrightSpace.
Registration
As a student, you are responsible for enrolling on time through MyStudyMap.
In this short video, you can see step-by-step how to enrol for courses in MyStudyMap.
Extensive information about the operation of MyStudyMap can be found here.
There are two enrolment periods per year:
Enrolment for the fall opens in July
Enrolment for the spring opens in December
See this page for more information about deadlines and enrolling for courses and exams.
Note:
It is mandatory to enrol for all activities of a course that you are going to follow.
Your enrolment is only complete when you submit your course planning in the ‘Ready for enrolment’ tab by clicking ‘Send’.
Not being enrolled for an exam/resit means that you are not allowed to participate in the exam/resit.
Contact
Lecturer: Prof.dr. Bas Haring. Please use WhatsApp for contact the teacher; details are provided in the course instructions on BrightSpace.
Education coordinator LIACS bachelors.
Remarks
Software
Starting from the 2024/2025 academic year, the Faculty of Science will use the software distribution platform Academic Software. Through this platform, you can access the software needed for specific courses in your studies. For some software, your laptop must meet certain system requirements, which will be specified with the software. It is important to install the software before the start of the course. More information about the laptop requirements can be found on the student website.