Case study: Reframing and Communicating Al Ethics

Students will choose a scenario from the those listed below and write a response outlining 'best ethical practice'.

*The response should make reference to the ACS code of ethics, the alternative code of ethics that you worked on in tutorials and concepts from the subject's readings and glossary.

Typically a response would include:

• A clear statement of the scenario being addressed and the perspective taken.

• An introduction which interprets the scenario as you see it and states any assumptions that you might be making.

• A clear articulation of the ethical problems embedded in the scenario, their causes, their stakeholders and their impacts.

• A discussion of how best practice might be achieved, highlighting any recommendations or reforms that might need to be made to existing laws, policies and codes.

• In text citations and a reference list in APA style.

Scenario 1: Impact on knowledge workers

Since the introduction of personal computers and the internet, there have been debates over their potential to revolutionise and democratise the way that knowledge workers and creative professionals work. Al tools which include the automation of routine functions, prediction, error correction and generative derivation of natural language writing and photorealistic images present a range of opportunities to enhance the ways that knowledge and creative workers practice their craft, however they also present a form. of enfeeblement risk, the risk of losing first principle skills and knowledges essential the authentic practice of a job, craft or Artform.

As an Al ethicist, you have been invited to contribute a written submission to an Australian government review on Al's impact on the knowledge and creative economy which run during in 2025 with the final report being delivered in 2026.

OR

As a representative of trade union representing media and journalism professionals you have been invited to contribute a written submission to an Australian govemment review on Al's impact on the knowledge and creative economy which run during in 2025 with the final report being delivered in 2026.

Prepare and present this submission to the review in the form. of a written argument with subheadings and citations.

Assume:

1. you are an independent Al ethics consultant with no affiliations to any private corporations or government departments though you have an affiliation to UTS.

2. the technologies, systems, laws, regulations and policies in question are those that exist right now (October 2024).

3, the scope of your discussion can be global but you need to translate your key points in a way that they are relevant to the Australian context.

Scenario 2: Children's data rights and deep fakes

LAION-5B, is a free online dataset of 5.85 billion images, used to train a number of publicly available Al generators that produce hyper-realistic images.

Early this year, the ABC reported that: (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-07-03/ai-generated-images-privacy-children-human-rights/104043414) The privacy of Australian children is being violated on a large scale by the artificial intelligence (Al) industry, with personal images, names, locations and ages being used to train some of the world's leading Al models. Researchers from Human Rights Watch (HRW) discovered the images in a prominent dataset, including a newborn baby still connected to their mother by an umbilical cord, preschoolers playing musical instruments, and girls in swimsuits at a school sports canival.

Ethical consideration of the Al supply chain is becoming urgent especially when we see incidents deepfake images produced using Al being shared without consent [for example, see this article (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-25/explicit-ai-deepfakes-students-bacchus-marshgrammar/104016178)]. 

In the context of the proposed reforms to the Australian Privacy Act, assume the identity of and prepare a written submission to the government from the perspective of:

1. a 'ethicopolitically engaged' teenager and write a formal rebuttal to government's response to the privacy act (https://www.ag.gov.au/rights-andprotections/publications/government-response-privacy-act-review-report), review outlining the roles and responsibilities for government regulators, platform. operators and end users in achieving best practice and protections across the regulatory, technological and social domains. OR

2. a school counsellor working in the state government school system OR

3. a member of an in-house ethics team at an Al tech company like Google, Stability Al, Open Al, Hugging Face OR

4. on behalf ofDigital Rights Watch (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital Rights Watch) or Electronic Frontiers Australia (https://efa.org.au)

Cover issues including but not limited to: dynamic consent, transparency, technological prevention measures, labelling of images, victim impact, and literacies required to understand the stakes of deepfakes.

Scenario 3: Autonomous Weapon Systems

With many nations now investing in the development of Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS).

LAWS are controversial for a number of reasons. One of these is that they remove human oversight from the process of killing. This is said to have two effects: to separate the decision maker from the consequences of their choices and to deny the human dignity of the victim.

A counter argument to this often made by proponents of the technology from within the defence industry is the path from firing to consequence is far more convoluted than that of a rifle, but the act of deciding to fire is the same and it comes from a human. When a person presses the 'on' button for a LAWS, they are pulling a trigger, releasing an extremely sophisticated bullet, and they are accountable for that action. And if they have not investigated the competence of the machine properly enough to know whether it may act improperly, their crime is the same.

But the black-boxed and opaque nature of the technology makes this pragmatic and considered approach difficult to achieve in real-life situations.

Prepare an issues paper (with subheadings) that outlines the ethical dimensions of LAws.

Cover issues including but not limited to: scope creep between military and policing applications of the technology, malicious use of the technology in crime and terrorism, how the transformation of warfare by this technology changes the way we understand human rights, dynamic thinking and emotional intelligence (a comparison of humans and machines) and the notion of keeping humans in the loop (i.e. where and how), technology and its relationship to trauma and PTSD.

Assume the identity of one of the following:

a) A representative from veteran's affairs advocacy group OR

b) A serving member of a defence force OR

c) A representative of human rights organisation like https://www.stopkillerrobots.org (https://www.stopkillerrobots.org). or the Australian Human Rights Commission (https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/legal/submission/human-rights-impacts-autonomousweaponry#:-:text=Lethal%20autonomous%20weapons, Lethal%20autonomous%20weapons&text=The%20Alliance%20calls%20for%20a,humanitarian%20law%20and%20international%20law.). OR

d) A concerned technologist working at an organisation that develops LAWS-related technology

Drawing on concepts from the subject.glossary (https://canvas.uts.edu.au/courses/33164/pages/ai-ethics-glossary-of-terms? module_item_id=1888839), including but not limited to: intuitivist ethics, mediation of action and perception, moral agency, patience and responsibility, organisational deviance, passive responsibility, responsible innovation, trade-offs and uncritical loyalty respond to the ALL of the following statement(s):

Who or what can be held morally responsible when LAWS are used incorrectly? Should LAWS be subiected to a total ban? (arque for or againstl should there be a moratorium on the development of LAWS (if so how long should it be and what would need to be in place for it to be lifted)?

Students choose a scenario from the those listed above and write a response outlining 'best ethical practice'.

*The response should make reference to the ACS code of ethics, the alternative code of ethics that you worked on in tutorials andl concepts from the subject's readings and glossary.

Typically a response would include:

• A clear statement of the scenario being addressed and the perspective taken

• An introduction which interprets the scenario as you see it and states any assumptions that you might be making.

• A clear articulation of the ethical problems embedded in the scenario, their causes, their stakeholders and their impacts.

• A discussion of how best practice might be achieved, highlighting any recommendations or reforms that might need to be made to existing laws, policies and codes.

• In text citations and a reference list in APA style.