At the end of the course students will:have an overview and develop a basic understanding of social, ethical and legal aspects related to AI and Cybersecurityacquire a more detailed understanding in selected research areas, including, for example, specific concepts in ethics, philosophy of science, and science and technology studies be able to apply theoretical concepts and approaches in the analysis of social and ethical complexitybe able to analyze value conflicts and socio-ethical dilemmas

Lecture, discussion, group work

The course provides a basic understanding of what ‘social’ and ‘ethical’ means in the context of technology design, development and use. The lectures and discussions concerned with the social and ethical aspects of AI & Cybersecurity overlap in various ways, since part of the course relies on integrated, interdisciplinary approaches. We will, for instance, address the following question: Who or what is responsible for fatal accidents, and other undesirable socio-ethical consequences from running (semi-)autonomous systems, such as ‘self-driving’ cars? Their design, development and governance require the input and coordination of many different actors, including programmers and modelling experts, car manufacturers and dealers, car owners and drivers, as well as transport and traffic expects. We discuss and analyse such complex situations of distributed responsibility for AI solutions, and what such complex entanglements imply for the roles and responsibilities of AI designers, developers and other AI experts. In a similar way, we address complex socio-ethical situations in Cybersecurity (CS), and analyse the implications for the roles and responsibilities of CS experts. This is complemented by a presentation of the legal framework that has been established for developments in the field of AI. It will have to be shown that the legal implications are far-reaching; the focus will then be on data protection law, intellectual property law and liability law. For example: Who is liable if self-driving cars cause damage? What are the limits to the processing of data, especially personal data? 

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All course materials will be provided via Moodle. 

The grade will consist of:25% reflection papers25% presentation50% open book exam

Lecture notes and readingsIn their papers and presentations, the students will show that they have acquired a good understanding of the challenges and possibilities provided by digital technologies, esp. algorithms and artificial intelligence, in regard to ethical, legal, and social aspects. Further they will show that they are able to make arguments for or against certain applications based on these concepts. The reflection papers will show that the students have actively engaged with the readings. 

The grade will consist of:25% reflection papers25% presentation50% open book exam