Moral And Ethical Issues

Question 1

Why has automated decision making increased?

Answer 1

• Speed of decision making has increased
• Computers are able to analyse millions of bits of data quickly and accurately
• Use algorithms to process data and reach decisions

Question 2

What will the quality of automated decision making depend on?

Answer 2

• The accuracy and completeness of the data
• the predictability of the situation
• quality of the algorithm

Question 3

What are some examples of automated decision making?

Answer 3

• Electrical power distribution requires rapid responses to changing circumstances to avoid disaster ours consequences
• in an emergency response to a major incident auto decision making can help deploy resources quickly and effectively
• Credit assessment in banks
• Trading in shares and commodities

Question 4

What are AI programs?

Answer 4

• Designed to learn from experience
• Much of dev in AI is focused on neural networks which attempt to emulate how the human brain works
• Tasks that are simple for humans are complex for computers such as recognising objects and people

Question 5

What are expert systems and what 3 components do expert systems have?

Answer 5

• Make up basis for many AI systems
  1) A knowledge base including the collected expert knowledge often as ‘if…then’ rules
  2) An inference engine that searches the knowledge base to identify potential responses
  3) An interface to communicate with the user or system it is working with

Question 6

What areas is AI used?

Answer 6

• Credit card checking that looks for unusual patterns in credit-card use to identify potential fraudulent use
• Speech recognition systems that identify keywords and patterns in the spoken word to interrupt meaning
• medical diagnosis systems used to self-diagnose illness from the symptoms and to support medical staff in making diagnosis

Question 7

What are some issues with AI?

Answer 7

• Intelligence is more than just pattern recognition so for true AI you need to implemented creativity, social intelligence and out social ability
• Chat Bots can be used as malware
• Would an AI have rights? Would it be right to terminate it? Is the create responsible for it?

Question 8

What are the environmental issues of computer materials?

Answer 8

• Comps are made from toxic materials, such as Mercury, radioactive isotopes, cadmium and chromium, that need to be recycled carefully if they are not to cause significant pollution
• To avoid the cost of recycling many commuters are shipped off for disposal to countries with lower enviro standards where the waste is usually picked over by people to recover the metals
• Modern computers consume large amounts of energy and data centres use large amounts of electricity. Estimated that in 2014 the energy consumed by data centres was more than the aviation industry

Question 9

What is Internet censorship?

Answer 9

• Deliberate suppression of what can be accessed or published on Internet
• May be done to limit access to socially unacceptable material or to limit access to what they regard as dangerous info
• Extent of censorship various from country to country depending on political and social situations in these countries
• carries out by ISP’s at request of or under instruction from gov
• Total censorship is hard to apply unless there is a single central censor as many people will still share info through underlying data transfer networks (including file sharing networks). Eg: dark web
• Access to websites is filtered by reference to blacklists that are set up with unacceptable sites and through dynamic examination of the website for unacceptable content
• Main categories blocked in the UK are extremist politics, extreme porn and copyright infringing sites

Question 10

What are examples of computer tech monitoring behaviour?

Answer 10

-Performance in workplace role
-known criminals with tagging devices
-black boxes in cars
-social media posts and activities by the press and employers
-internet activity while at work by employers
Once data is on the internet it is difficult to remove

Question 11

What is a common use of data?

Answer 11

Used to analyse shopping and leisure activities to focus advertising more effectively

Question 12

What is data mining?

Answer 12

Automated process that searches for patterns in large data sets to predict events

Question 13

Why is data mining used?

Answer 13

• to fight organised crime; data about individual activities including social media, financial transactions, travel and Internet histories have produced valuable info ion the fight against crime and terrorism
• Used to identify patterns to inform strategic business decisions. Can be used to predict future sales and hence stock requirements and effective and targeted marketing strategies to improve business profitability
• In science analysis of DNA sequences and matching this to medical info has led to development of effective treatment for various conditions

Question 14

How have computers transformed the workplace?

Answer 14

• Computer tech in a variety of forms now plays a major role in the workplace
• Caused a huge shift in the skill set of the modern workforce
• Online banking has replaced the bank clerk, online shopping has crippled the high street and employees with IT skills are in demand
• Workforce is subject to monitoring by computer tech to assess their productivity, the way they work and there effectiveness