Seminar on Effective Research Practices & Academic Culture (CS 290a) – Fall 2022

Module Topic: Moral and Professional Responsibility in Computing
Module Author: Trystan S. Goetze

Course Level: Graduate (PhD)
AY: 2021-2022

Course Description: “This is a reading and discussion-based seminar designed for entering Computer Science Ph.D. students. This course prepares students to manage the difficult and often undiscussed challenges of Ph.D. programs through sessions on: 

1. Research skill building (e.g. paper reading, communication)
2. Soft skill building (e.g. managing advising relationships, supporting your peers)
3. Academic culture (e.g. mental health in academia, power dynamics in scientific communities)
4. Research and professional-oriented discussions.”

Semesters Taught: Fall 2022

Tags

• Moral responsibility (phil)
• Professional responsibility (cs)
• Research ethics (cs)

    Module Overview

This module examines difficulties in tracing moral responsibility for the consequences of the development and use of a computing system. Through interactive lecture, students are introduced to a standard view of moral responsibility in analytic philosophy, then walked through several causal chains of decision-making that lead to computer systems causing harm. Students are challenged to consider which parties in the chain may be morally responsible for the downstream effects. The distinction between backward-looking and forward-looking responsibility is introduced, and students are asked to consider whether any parties in the causal chain have forward-looking responsibilities in virtue of their connection to the resulting events and their professional roles.
The active component of the module has students apply these concepts to a specific case of an autonomous vehicle that collides with a pedestrian. They are asked to complete a causal chain of different decision-makers along the way to the accident and to consider who among them may be backwards-responsible or have forwards-responsibilities.

    Connection to Course Technical Material

One goal of this seminar is to introduce PhD students to professional norms and issues in computational disciplines of study and practice. Since they will be taking up major roles in tech research and industry, becoming aware of their professional responsibilities to stakeholders in the technologies they develop is an important part of their professional development.

Goals

Module Goals

1. Understand the concepts of backward- and forward-looking moral responsibility
2. Apply these concepts to a concrete case study in computer science
3. Appreciate the connection between one’s professional role and one’s moral duties

    Key Philosophical Questions

1. When a computer system causes harm, who is responsible?
2. Whether or not anyone is responsible in a backwards-looking sense, does anyone have any forward-looking responsibilities in connection with the harm? Why?
3. Which contextual details are important in answering these questions?

Materials

    Key Philosophical Concepts

• Moral responsibility
• Professional responsibility
• Backward-looking and forward-looking responsibility
• Causal chains

    Assigned Readings

• Helen Nissenbaum, “Computing and Accountability“

Pre-class assignment

Search the web for a recent news story about some scandal involving computing technology, a tech company, or a computer science research group.

1. Briefly summarize the scandal, and provide the link to the news story.
2. Identify the different parties involved in the scandal: who were the developers, the end users, the victims, etc.?
3. Who, among those parties, should be held accountable for their role in the scandal, and in what way? Refer to Nissenbaum’s arguments in your answer.

Implementation

Class Agenda

1. Course head recaps previous session
2. Introduction to Embedded EthiCS
3. Concept of moral responsibility
4. Distinction between backward- and forward-looking responsibility
5. Illustration of causal chain and questions about responsibility at each step
6. Small group activity
7. Take-up of group activity as a class
8. Wrapping up and feedback

    Sample Class Activity

After being presented with the research on stereotype threat, students are asked to form small groups and generate examples of their own in which a similar effect is at play: an interaction with technology makes a certain stereotype salient to the user, as a result of which the user is adversely impacted.

    Module Assignment

There was a pre-reading quiz, with three short questions: one on nudging, two on value-sensitive design. Select circle icon with letter ‘i’ to read the marginalia for this paragraph. End of class reflection submitted through Canvas:
How does what we discussed in today’s session relate to your practice as a researcher or professional?

Lessons Learned

Students were mostly highly engaged with the topic and interested in puzzling out who is responsible, what the various contextual elements of the cases are, and how different parties should respond. There was some productive disagreement in the whole class discussion that illuminated the difficulties surrounding these issues. Some students felt that the reading was dated because of its examples. Another point of criticism from students was that the pacing was too slow, and could have eliminated some exposition before the activity.