STS 239
The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence
Spring 2025
Division II
Cross-listed
PHIL 239
Class Details
Human beings will someday live alongside artificially intelligent beings who equal or exceed us. The rise of AI will be a tectonic shift for culture, technology, and our fundamental sense of ourselves. When AI is fully realized, it is likely to be amongst the most important things to happen to our species. Some challenges we face are broad and about the future. How can we ensure that AI’s will act morally? Is a world with AI’s overall better or worse for us? How do we create legal and policy frameworks that cover a new kind of thinking being? If they are conscious, will AI’s have dignity and rights? Other questions are pressing and immediate: Artificial intelligence techniques are used today to help decide whether someone gets a bank loan, is eligible to be released on bail, or in need of particular medical treatment. And right now there are autonomous vehicles deciding how to behave in traffic, and autonomous weapons capable of delivering lethal force. Is it moral for us to pass along these sorts of decisions to AI’s? What if they are biased, unbeknownst to us? What if they are more fair? How should we understand intellectual and creative work in an era of generative models that take on some aspects of thought? In this course we will engage ethical questions surrounding the seeming inevitability of AI.
The Class:
Format: lecture; mixture of lectures and discussion
Limit: 25
Expected: 25
Class#: 3523
Grading: no pass/fail option, yes fifth course option
Limit: 25
Expected: 25
Class#: 3523
Grading: no pass/fail option, yes fifth course option
Requirements/Evaluation:
four short (3- to 4-page) writing assignments and a final essay (8-10 pages)
Prerequisites:
none
Enrollment Preferences:
CSCI or PHIL majors or STS or COGS concentrators
Distributions:
Divison II
Notes:
This course is cross-listed and the prefixes carry the following divisional credit:
PHIL 239 Division II STS 239 Division II
PHIL 239 Division II STS 239 Division II
Attributes:
COGS Interdepartmental Electives
PHIL Contemporary Value Theory Courses
PHIL Contemporary Value Theory Courses
Class Grid
Updated 1:43 pm
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STS 239 - 01 (S) LEC The Ethics of AI
STS 239 - 01 (S) LEC The Ethics of AIDivision IIMW 8:25 pm - 9:40 pm
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