Meica Magnani

Embedding ethics modules within computer science courses has become a popular response to the growing recognition that CS programs need to better equip their students to navigate the ethical dimensions of computing technologies like AI, machine learning, and big data analytics. However, the popularity of this approach has outpaced the evidence of its positive outcomes. To help close that gap, this empirical study reports positive results from Northeastern’s program that embeds values analysis modules into CS courses. The resulting data suggest that such modules have a positive effect on students’ moral attitudes and that students leave the modules believing they are more prepared to navigate the ethical dimensions they’ll likely face in their eventual careers. Importantly, these gains were accomplished at an institution without a philosophy doctoral program, suggesting this strategy can be effectively employed by a wider range of institutions than many have thought.

As artificial intelligence (AI) systems increasingly permeate processes of cultural and epistemic production, there are growing concerns about how their outputs may confine individuals and groups to static or restricted narratives about who or what they could be. In this paper, we advance the discourse surrounding these concerns by making three contributions. First, we introduce the concept of aspirational affordance to describe how culturally shared interpretive resources can shape individual cognition, and in particular exercises practical imagination. We show how this concept can ground productive evaluations of the risks of AI-enabled representations and narratives. Second, we provide three reasons for scrutinizing of AI's influence on aspirational affordances: AI's influence is potentially more potent, but less public than traditional sources; AI's influence is not simply incremental, but ecological, transforming the entire landscape of cultural and epistemic practices that traditionally shaped aspirational affordances; and AI's influence is highly concentrated, with a few corporate-controlled systems mediating a growing portion of aspirational possibilities. Third, to advance such a scrutiny, we introduce the concept of aspirational harm, which, in the context of AI systems, arises when AI-enabled aspirational affordances distort or diminish available interpretive resources in ways that undermine individuals' ability to imagine relevant practical possibilities and alternative futures. Through three case studies, we illustrate how aspirational harms extend the existing discourse on AI-inflicted harms beyond representational and allocative harms, warranting separate attention. Through these conceptual resources and analyses, this paper advances understanding of the psychological and societal stakes of AI's role in shaping individual and collective aspirations.

Here we describe how writing exercises based on Value Analysis Design, an approach to the design and implementation of technological systems, can build skills in both philosophical reflection and philosophical writing. While not a replacement for long-form philosophical writing, these exercises are ways to help students develop both philosophical and writing skills. Not only do they do so without requiring the extensive feedback that is required for long-form writing, but they are also opportunities for STEM students and other non-philosophy majors to acquire skills in ethical reflection, analysis, and communication.