Future of Travel (Spring)
Thu, Apr 06
In this session we'll begin by talking about the social dilemmas posed by emerging artificial intelligence technologies. We'll frame the conversation using The Trolley Problem: a series of thought experiments commonly invoked in safety debates around self-driving cars that invoke the dilemma of killing one person to save the lives of others. We'll also look at other social implications of self-driving cars, anticipating their arrival in the near future.
We have three main in-class learning goals. By the end of lecture today you will:
- Learn about AI in a social context, including emerging risks.
- Think critically about the Trolley Problem, which is one of the most discussed thought experiments in AI right now.
- Consider the social impact of self-driving cars, from increased mobility to changes to infrastructure.
The slides for today's lecture.
Read This:
Sam Anthony and collaborators on problems with the Trolley Problem and more Practical Common Sense Tests for self-driving cars
Jacob Silverman writing for Longreads on the Menace and Promise of Autonomous Vehicles
Meredith Broussard reports for the Atlantic that Self-Driving Cars Still Don't Know How to See
Aarian Marshall reports for Wired that the evidence in the self-driving Uber crash in Arizona Shows the Kind of Crash Self-Driving Cars Are Made to Avoid
Brooks Rainwater and Nicole DuPuis note that Cities Have Taken the Lead in Regulating Driverless Vehicles in Bloomberg
Michael Gibson questions the state of the autonomy industry in his piece The Driverless-Car Pile-Up for the National Review
These optional readings further explore the benefits and risks of self-driving cars:
The Trolley, The Bull Bar, and Why Engineers Should Care About The Ethics of Autonomous Cars
Have Autonomous Vehicles Hit A Roadblock?
All Tesla Cars Being Produced Now Have Full Self-Driving Hardware
Self-driving car accidents: Robot drivers are ‘odd, and that’s why they get hit’
Car makers can’t “drive their way to safety” with self-driving cars
Self-driving cars still can’t mimic the most natural human behavior
Cities Need to Take the Wheel in Our Driverless Future
Feds defend voluntary robot car regulations
U.S. House unanimously approves sweeping self-driving car measure
Do This:
Writing Reflection 09
Instructions for Writing Reflection 09.
This writing reflection is due on 4/07 at 12pm.
Instructions for Project 03 Released
The project for this next unit on "Ethics in AI" will be a Letter to the Editor that that summarizes your group's dialogues over the course of the next several weeks. Instructions for Project 03
This project is due Saturday 04/22 at 12pm.
This Week's Dialogue Group Meeting
Find at least one hour to meet with your group to discuss the prompt of the week: What concerns about AI are overhyped at the present moment?