Introduction to Ethics

Introduction to Ethics

• Ethics refers to the study of morality
• Morality refers to the rules guiding human conduct and principles for evaluating these rules
• Moral systems aim to prevent harm while promoting human flourishing
• Moral systems should be public, informal, rational, and impartial
• Morality is applicable at both the micro-level (individual behavior) and macro-level (social policy)

Theories of Ethics

Divine Command Ethics

• The moral value of an action is determined by divine rules
• Morality is dictated by a superior power like God or karma
• A criticism of this theory is what if no divine law-giver exists

Consequentialist Ethics/Utilitarianism

• Morality is determined based on the outcome of an action
• Evaluation methods include the happiness of those affected or their health and well-being
• A criticism of this theory is can morality be reduced to just happiness, health, or well-being

Deontological Ethics

• Morality is based on duty rather than outcomes
• Immanuel Kant's Moral Imperative suggests acting on maxims that can be universally applied
• A criticism of this theory is what happens when duties conflict

Rights and Social Contract Ethics

• Morality is defined by upholding human rights and following social contracts
• A criticism of this theory is not all moral issues can be covered by contracts or rights

Virtue Ethics

• Focuses on character and virtue rather than rules or consequences
• It can align with other ethical theories
• Virtues differ by culture and context

Moral Relativism vs Objectivity

• Moral relativism: Morality is subjective and varies across cultures
• Cultural relativism: Observes differences but does not dictate moral judgement
• Ethical objectivity: Ethics can be rational even if morality isn't absolute

Moral Foundations Theory (Jonathan Haidt)

• Human morality has six core domains

Care/Harm (Compassion)

• Involves empathy for others and a desire to prevent suffering
• Helping a lost child or donating to disaster relief efforts are examples
• Typically emphasized in liberal moral views, human rights advocacy, and healthcare ethics

Fairness/Cheating (Justice)

• Values justice, equality, and fair treatment
• Supporting equal pay for equal work or being outraged by corruption and cheating are examples
• Often highlighted in discussions of social justice, economic fairness, and democracy

Liberty/Oppression (Freedom)

• Opposes domination and values personal and collective freedom
• Fighting against dictatorships, supporting free speech, or advocating for civil liberties
• Libertarians, revolutionaries, and civil rights activists prioritize this foundation

Loyalty/Betrayal (Group Identity)

• Focuses on strong connections to groups (family, nation, team) and valuing loyalty
• Patriotism, supporting a sports team, or being upset by a friend's betrayal are examples
• Often emphasized in conservative political ideologies, military culture, and collectivist societies

Authority/Subversion (Respect for Hierarchy)

• Recognizes and respects hierarchies and traditions
• Following the chain of command in the military or respecting elders are examples
• Found in conservative politics, traditional societies, and religious institutions

Sanctity/Degradation (Purity and Sacredness)

• Involves seeing some things as sacred and rejecting what is viewed as disgusting or degrading
• Religious rituals, disgust at immoral behavior, or opposition to taboo acts like incest or cannibalism are examples
• Common in religious and traditionalist perspectives and movements focused on moral purity
• Societies emphasize different foundations

Just-Consequentialist Framework (Moor)

• Combines multiple ethical theories, excluding divine command

Steps for policy evaluation:

• Deliberate impartially over options
• A policy is ethical if it avoids unnecessary harm and supports fulfilling duties and obligations
• Identify the best policy by weighing benefits and harms and ensuring factual accuracy
• Consult stakeholders for ethical decision-making

Ethical Issues in AI and Autonomous Vehicles

• Prioritization in autonomous cars:
  • Passenger safety vs. pedestrian safety
  • Protecting property vs. preventing harm

Ethical theories guide these decisions:

• Utilitarian approach: Minimize harm
• Deontological approach: Follow universal moral rules
• Virtue ethics: Act with wisdom and justice

Introduction to Fairness in Ethics

• Fairness ensures just treatment for all individuals
• The GAIA Policy focuses on fairness in education and AI use, emphasizing transparency, equity, and responsible AI usage

Key questions to be asked:

• What describes fairness
• How to evaluate fairness
• Should fairness account for personal differences, such as:
  • economic status
  • family background
  • mental health

The Importance of Fairness

• Fairness supports social stability (John Rawls)
• Perceived unfairness can lead to societal unrest or revolution
• Fairness upholds individual dignity by preventing discrimination
• Cultural differences impact the perception of fairness
• In some societies, pay gaps based on gender might be considered fair due to cultural norms

Equality vs. Equity

• Equality means treating everyone the same, regardless of differences
• Equity means adjusting conditions so that everyone has an equal opportunity
• A tall and short person watching a game over a fence are the example highlighted
• Equality describes both getting the same-sized box to stand on
• Equity describes the short person getting a taller box so both can see equally

Fairness in Social Policy (Distributive Justice)

• Distributive justice: Fair distribution of goods and opportunities based on a number of factors:
  • What is being distributed? (e.g., jobs, healthcare, and education)
  • Who receives it? (e.g., individuals, groups, and regions)
  • Basis for distribution? (equality, merit, and past discrimination)
• Provision of universal healthcare by the government, high salaries for CEOs and equal pay for equal work for women are examples
• Privilege affects fairness

Distribution of Goods and Harms

• Types of Goods:
  • Environmental (clean air, water)
  • Economic (jobs, income, property)
  • Personal (education, healthcare, privacy)
  • Social (peace, safety, justice)
• Types of Harms:
  • Distributional harms: Unequal distribution of goods
  • Representational harms: Stereotyping or misrepresentation of groups
• Privileged individuals access goods more easily and avoid harms more effectively

Algorithmic Fairness

• Bias in AI systems impacts fairness
• Amazon's AI recruiting tool discriminated against women because it was trained on biased data

Challenges:

• Unintended bias can exist in algorithms even if trained on “neutral” data
• An AI trained to detect sexual orientation from photos showed biased accuracy across groups

The Limits of Blinding Data to Improve Fairness

• "Fairness through unawareness” doesn't work
• AI can infer race, gender, or socioeconomic status from data (e.g., ZIP codes, shopping habits)
• Sometimes, fairness requires using sensitive data
• Medical treatments may need race/gender data for accurate prescriptions
• Recidivism risk algorithms may need gender information because men and women have different reoffending patterns

Group Fairness & Systemic Bias

• Defines what fairness is

Fairness definitions:

• Demographic Parity: Everyone gets equal treatment
• Error-Rate Parity: Different groups will face equal misclassification rates
• Calibration: The algorithm accuracy is equal across groups

Systemic Bias Examples:

• AP classes are easier to access the AP classes in wealthy schools, so using “number of AP classes" as a success metric is unfair
• Sound compression in technology often favors men's voices over women's

Fairness and the Digital Divide

• Unequal access to information and technology can create unfairness concerns
• Developing nations lacking internet access

What are the factors?

• Economic class
• Race
• Gender affect access to jobs
• Education and information

The Role of Cyber Technology in Fairness

Democracy

• Pros: Technology enhances free speech and informs voters
• Cons: Algorithmic personalization creates echo chambers (e.g., biased news feeds)
• Ethical issue: Technology potentially undermining the democracy by spreading misinformation

Workplace & Automation

• Job displacement due to AI and automation occurs here
• There is an increase in workplace surveillance (employee tracking, data collection)
• Ethical issue: Changes impact privacy, job security, and well-being

Key Takeaways

• Fairness is complex and culturally dependent
• Equity, not just equality, is imperative for real fairness
• Algorithmic fairness is very difficult but crucial to achieve
• Bias exists can occur in both human and AI decision-making
• Technology influences fairness in multiple areas:
  • Democracy
  • Work
  • Access to resources

Ethics and Social Goods

• Responsible computing and the data scientist's obligations:
  • Use data and algorithms for the social good
  • Protect the privacy of users
  • Acknowledge long-term impact of technology
  • Seek expert advice
• What impact and harms exist:
  • Good vs. harm: Are they public?
  • How can we measure these?
  • Who is the ultimate decision maker?

Classifications of Goods

• Environmental: Clean air, water, food safety
• Economic: Employment, property, mobility
• Personal: Health Care, education, privacy
• Social: Liberty from threats, stability, justice

Categories of bad things that exist

• Unequitable access to goods: Distrubtional harms
• Representational: Harmful images, misinformation
• Privilege: Those in positions of power can avoid harmful outcomes

Key Term Definitions

• Definition: A commodity/service that benefits all members of a society

Characteristics:

• Everyone can access it without blocking the other: Non-excludable
• Everyone has equal access: Non-rivalrous Pure: Always Non- Excludable--National Defence Impure: Only Sometimes Non-Excludable--Open Source Software

How can goods be exclusive?

• Private--Excludable and Rivalrous-Food
• Club- Excludable Non-Rivalrous-Satellite TV
• Common Pool--Non Excludable but Rivalrous-Fishing

Diving deeper into access to Goods

Social Goods vs. Public Goods

• Social good subset of larger term
• Social Goods Related to Societal Well-Being - Education
• Public Safety
• Public health has far reaching effects and should be a universal right
• All levels of government can work together with the private sector to provide funding and or expertise

Generating of Public Goods

Public Good Game

• Starting with $100:
• Shared Public Goods: $3000
• Once met: People contribute to a shared public good ($3,000 needed)
• Outcome:
  • Free ride--Gain Benefits without Contributing
  • Cooperate Fully--Ensure Public Good
  • Cooperate Equitably--Those Able Contribute More
  • Appoint Good Leaders

Free Riding Concerns

• Free-riding prevents public goods from being created

Three Solutions:

• Punishment, Cultural Indoctrination, Belief
• Cultural/Religious-Instilling Moral Ideals
• Challenges Still Remain
• Free Markets

Is technological advancement useful?

• Cyber-technology-Easier to Manufacture
• Incentives for Cost Reduction:
  • Public V. Private-Have incentives to make tech accessible
  • Gov-Have Motivation; Lack Expertise
  • Corpos-prioritize Profit; Have Expertise

Can it evolve safely?

• Question More
• Cyber Good/Harm: Is it Beneficial
• NGOS
• Should Cyber-Tech Public Goods/Regulations Exist? By Whom? What is Necessary? Cyber-Tech:

Examples:

• Internet & Search Engines
• Social Networking Services
• Virtual Environments
• AI algorithms

Important Takeaways

• Public goods benefit all but are hard to create due to free-riding and profit motives
• Social goods focus on societal organisation and function, such as Public Health
• Markets fail regularly, and require government action
• Private resists making it non-exclusive

Introduction to Ethical Reasoning and Cognitive Error

Ethical judgements that are made by who and why:

• Made By: human Brain
• Shaped by: Evolution & Cognitive Psychology

Brain influences through:

• Evolutionary: For Survival; Imperfect Rationality
• Cognitive: Processing Thoughts; Emotions; Decisions
• Limiting factors in memory-Maladaptive in Modern contexts
• Bounded Rationality: Humans Limited --Resources
• Cognitive Bias: Distorts Logic; Effects Judgement
• Shortcuts: Heuristics (Mental)

Origins of Bad Reasoning:

• Our brains prioritize survival-based reasoning (Neuro-evolutionary constraints)
• Judgement often based on heuristics and shortcuts

What Affects Us

• Survival Decisions Instead of Logic

Three Kinds of Cognitive Reasoning Errors:

• Cognitive biases occur due to four main reasons

Happens because we take in too much Information:

• Existing beliefs/Attitudes: Confirmation Bias
• Sunk Cost Fallacy: More time instead of quitting
• Past Decisions: Choice-Supportive Bias
• Paralysis from Over Analysis: Information Overload

Happens from having too Little Info

• We are heavily impacted by framing
• Framing has an outsized Effect
• Tendency to avoid and fear the unknown
• Negative experiences/Expectations: Negativity Bias
• What was not: Hindsight Bias

Happens from Jumping to Conclusions/Acting

Relying on bad factoids

• Quick & Poor
• Can not process Data
• Peer opinions: Bandwagon Effect
• Base Rate: Illogical Conclusions can effect you greatly

Happens because we can not properly remember

• Tendency to Remember Untruths/False Memory
• Can not change your mind
• Believe First and Last are more Accurate
• Attributing success to oneself but blaming failures on external factors
• Limited Memory, not correct

Applying to Morality

• Divided into moral domains from jonathan haidt
• Moral Foundations Theory (MFT)

Six Kinds of Emotions:

• Care/Harm (Compassion).
• Fairness/Cheating (Justice).
• Liberty/Oppression (Freedom).
• Loyalty/Betrayal (Group identity).
• Authority/Subversion (Respect for hierarchy).
• Sanctity/Degradation (Purity and sacredness).
• Emphasised Differently Based on Culture - Political Views Affect This

Cognitive Influence on Ethics

• Can influence cyber decisions

A-Typical Arguments

• "Unregulated Free Markets; Ethical Problems"
• "Humans will always control AI"
• "Command Economy Regulates"

Bias-Challanges

• Issues Emerge for Automation with a "Black Box"
• Bias: Tech with Racism, Sexisms, Etc
• Algorithms and Lack Of Data
• Is it possible to overcome biases or is that pointless?
• Strive To Eliminate
• Moral Obligation
• Correct the Bias

Reasoning

• Sound Argument: Valid +premises are true
• Invalid Argument: Conclusion does not logically follow from premises

Types of Logical Questions:

• Simple Categorical

Involving IF

• Statements of Either/Or
• 9th Fallacy: A weakness in logical argument
• Post Hoc: I messed Up because you said.....

Closing thoughts:

• Biases: Effect ALL Humans-Information Urgency
• Ethic Logic-Structure Is Key