Artificial Intelligence: Ethics and Societal Challenges (MOOC)

Artificial Intelligence: Ethics and Societal Challenges is the third AI-related MOOC from Lund University available on Coursera.org. This course explores ethical and societal aspects of the increasing use of AI technologies. The aim of the course is to raise awareness of ethical and societal aspects of AI and to stimulate reflection and discussion upon implications of the use of AI in society.

In the first module, we will discuss algorithmic bias and surveillance. AI in many ways makes surveillance more effective, but what does it mean to us if we are increasingly being watched in more and more sophisticated ways? Next, we will talk about the impact of AI on democracy. We discuss why democracy is important, and how AI could hamper public democratic discussion, but also how it can help improve democracy. A further ethical question concerns whether our treatment of AI could matter for the AIs themselves. What is the relationship between consciousness and intelligence? This is the topic of the third week of the course. In the fourth module we will talk about responsibility and control. If an autonomous car hits an autonomous robot, who is responsible? The last question of the course, and maybe also the ultimate question for our species, is how to control machines that are more intelligent than we are. Our intelligence has given us a lot of power over the world we live in. Shall we really give that power away to machines and if we do, how do we stay in charge?