AI, Ethics and the Law (LAWS10009)

This subject investigates the role of ethics and law in responding to the opportunities, challenges and risks raised by increasingly widespread use in society of artificial intelligence (AI) and related computational processes. Techniques such as expert systems, machine learning, neural networks, natural language processing, and machine vision are affecting almost every aspect of modern society. In particular, these techniques are changing the way in which government and business make decisions and the interaction between humans and machines in almost all facets of life. These developments have many beneficial consequences. They also raise a host of concerns, including about the impact of AI on privacy, employment, interpersonal relationships, and human rights. Developing technical, ethical and legal responses to these kinds of technologies, and those have yet to be developed, requires cross disciplinary insights, including from the humanities, science, design, economics, computing, and law. Drawing on these perspectives, and also industry expertise, “AI, Ethics and the Law” explores these issues through a series of case studies, including:

• surveillance and facial recognition technologies
• predictive policing and algorithmic sentencing
• fake news and deep fakes
• algorithmic decision-making in government and by business for employment, credit and social services
• AI in medicine, finance and legal law
• AI in environmental protection and animal welfare
• service and care robots.