Prompt:
In this simulation your supervisor has asked you to assist a team at your company that has been developing a new AI application. This app will be made available for public purchase and use. The targeted consumer has a broad profile that includes members of legally protected classes. Your supervisor has proposed several questions and asked for your advisement. Apply the concepts you have learned in your recent data ethics training (IST 343) to ensure that the app development team takes an ethical approach in creating this AI app. Your supervisor is not familiar with data ethics or technical jargon and is counting on you to analytically interpret and engage with the current and future philosophical implications of digital data on society. As the resident expert, explaining concepts will be just as critical as leveraging them to support your advice.
Directions:
Provide short answers to each of the eight questions with a single paragraph (~100 words). Your total word count requirement for all eight questions is 800 – 1500 words.
o Each response should include a concept covered in IST 343. All concepts must be defined, cited, applied in context, and synthesized.
Include two concepts from Self-Tracking (For Questions 1 and 7)
Include three concepts from Data Feminism (For Questions 2, 4 and 5) Include three concepts from Atlas of AI (For Questions 3, 6, and 8)
Adhere to APA guidelines for your in-text citations and References page. Submit your References page at the end of the document. Don’t forget page numbers in your in-text citations!
Submit the final assignment as a .doc or .pdf
Grading: Rubric scale 0-2 per question plus 4 points for References/In-text
citations/Grammar
Questions:
1) Someone from the app development team told me that the application could be potentially acquired by Fitbit. I guess we could collect that tracking data. Why might people track? What could collection of this data mean for us as a company and for the user?
2) How can we ensure our app does not have any bias issues with only in-house staff?
3) Our current warehouse and warehouse employees can be used to create the product.
The employees will need to stay on a pretty tight schedule to get the product out by next year. Any ethical concerns we should plan for?
4) I want a custom dashboard that monitors the application’s metadata and other information that provides insight on how to make the application better. Do you foresee any ethical issues with this?
5) For the dashboard, I just want the numbers. No fancy graphics or visuals, unless you see there is a benefit to a visual element. What do you think?
6) The development team mentioned “Turk Workers” to train application’s algorithm that categorizes typical end user’s behavior. Can you explain what they are talking about and how we might use Turk workers? Are there any issues with this?
7) An interested buyer from the healthcare industry is interested in customizing our algorithm for healthcare-related tracking. They are interested in determining typical metrics and behaviors about the targeted demographic. What should they consider when buying our product?
8) The National Science Foundation (NSF), a government agency, is interested in using our algorithm’s logic to improve their predictive software. Their software will generate data that informs surveillance tactics for a nearby city aiming to incorporate “smart city” sensors. What should we consider before selling to the NSF?
