4 ms·

For comparison, another poster mentioned a real AI course over at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23322449 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23322449 wh

For comparison, another poster mentioned a real AI course over at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23322449 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23322449 which does include this. There is a tendency for articles by extremely talented, highly educated, yet relatively immature people to completely over-optimize for technical depth. It's a failure with many articles that get posted here. I wonder how the author might change their article after 10 more years of experience.

koheripbal 6y ago
I don't know. ...it's a bit sci-fi to add ethical instruction to AI dev. We are still way way distant from that. Are there ethical classes for Organic Chemistry majors? Industrial engineers? Physics?
- Gollapalli 6y ago
  I seem to recall humanities courses once having served the purpose.
- european321 6y ago
  Some universities do have a mandatory ethics course, so yes? Not all of course, or maybe not even most. But that's not a good argument "x and y don't follow the law anyways why should we"
  - zerkten 6y ago
    It varies. It's definitely more explicit in my experience of UK and EU systems. In the US, it's not always as explicit, but sometimes approach this in other ways, cf. Honor Councils. Computer science and related areas can be perceived as immature, and this conversation is one indication of this.
- n_o_u 6y ago
  > Are there ethical classes for Organic Chemistry majors? Industrial engineers? Physics? Yes, yes there are.
- zerkten 6y ago
  > I don't know. ...it's a bit sci-fi to add ethical instruction to AI dev. We are still way way distant from that. I don't know what you mean. Can you elaborate? > Are there ethical classes for Organic Chemistry majors? Industrial engineers? Physics? Good question. We do have these, although the application varies. Engineering disciplines probably have this more explicitly embedded from direct ethics-type classes through to insertion of failure case studies and the like. These degrees tend to align with specific professional organisations for mechanical engineering, construction, etc. Membership of these organisations may require specific courses, but most often this is pushed down to the educational institutes. Computer Science and related areas have tended to follow this direction. For someone studying chemistry or physics, there is less of a direct link, but it's somewhat unusual for an ethics requirement to be missing from a syllabus. Someone studying these might move into medicine, finance, or go to a startup. There is quite a spread of requirements there, and the destination generally governs the these in a more organic way. If you took this at the purest level and the chemist moved into a chemistry job at a pharma company, then membership of something like the American Chemistry Society might be expected. This bring a specific set of requirements. In any case, it is only a certain segment of the computing world which eschews ethics and professionalism. A large segment interacts with all of these other professions which do place higher value ethics and enforce to a higher degree. Even working internationally, you'll find that yourself bound by a code of ethics in your country, but limited by law in others.
- lazyasciiart 6y ago
  "a bit sci-fi"? What does that mean? We allow AI systems to decide who goes to jail in some places - I'd say that's a clear enough sign that the field needs people thinking all the way through their work. There's some good entry level books on the topic, like "Weapons of Math Destruction" that you might enjoy.

koheripbal 6y ago

I don't know. ...it's a bit sci-fi to add ethical instruction to AI dev. We are still way way distant from that. Are there ethical classes for Organic Chemistry majors? Industrial engineers? Physics?

Gollapalli 6y ago
I seem to recall humanities courses once having served the purpose.
european321 6y ago
Some universities do have a mandatory ethics course, so yes? Not all of course, or maybe not even most. But that's not a good argument "x and y don't follow the law anyways why should we"
- zerkten 6y ago
  It varies. It's definitely more explicit in my experience of UK and EU systems. In the US, it's not always as explicit, but sometimes approach this in other ways, cf. Honor Councils. Computer science and related areas can be perceived as immature, and this conversation is one indication of this.
n_o_u 6y ago
> Are there ethical classes for Organic Chemistry majors? Industrial engineers? Physics? Yes, yes there are.
zerkten 6y ago
> I don't know. ...it's a bit sci-fi to add ethical instruction to AI dev. We are still way way distant from that. I don't know what you mean. Can you elaborate? > Are there ethical classes for Organic Chemistry majors? Industrial engineers? Physics? Good question. We do have these, although the application varies. Engineering disciplines probably have this more explicitly embedded from direct ethics-type classes through to insertion of failure case studies and the like. These degrees tend to align with specific professional organisations for mechanical engineering, construction, etc. Membership of these organisations may require specific courses, but most often this is pushed down to the educational institutes. Computer Science and related areas have tended to follow this direction. For someone studying chemistry or physics, there is less of a direct link, but it's somewhat unusual for an ethics requirement to be missing from a syllabus. Someone studying these might move into medicine, finance, or go to a startup. There is quite a spread of requirements there, and the destination generally governs the these in a more organic way. If you took this at the purest level and the chemist moved into a chemistry job at a pharma company, then membership of something like the American Chemistry Society might be expected. This bring a specific set of requirements. In any case, it is only a certain segment of the computing world which eschews ethics and professionalism. A large segment interacts with all of these other professions which do place higher value ethics and enforce to a higher degree. Even working internationally, you'll find that yourself bound by a code of ethics in your country, but limited by law in others.
lazyasciiart 6y ago
"a bit sci-fi"? What does that mean? We allow AI systems to decide who goes to jail in some places - I'd say that's a clear enough sign that the field needs people thinking all the way through their work. There's some good entry level books on the topic, like "Weapons of Math Destruction" that you might enjoy.