Machine Learning Ethics Questions

Since machine learning has become a hot topic in computer science and information technology that affects more and more people today, quite a few ethical issues have arisen. If your project or thesis is related to machine learning, then the following questions are worth considering. Some may also be helpful in writing your Individual Ethics Essay.

Related to software engineering

  1. How do we deal with algorithms or datasets that necessarily take certain political or religious views in classifying statements for natural language processing (NLP)? Who gets to decide which political or religious bias is the correct one? Is it something to be decided on by consensus or rather by the software developers?
  2. When should professional software developers be held legally responsible for bad advice given by their machine learning algorithms? And what would this look like, e.g., fines or jail terms for software development teams or for corporate executives? (This question could be asked and answered differently for each industry, i.e., fintech, robotics, NLP, autonomous vehicles, health care, etc.)
  3. When should amateur software developers be held legally responsible for information they disseminate publicly based on their machine learning algorithms?
  4. When companies or governments utilize machine learning, what results are they obligated to disclose to the public?
  5. What systems should have an OFF switch?
  6. What systems should have periodic job reviews to see if they are OK to continue?
  7. What should a software developer do when he realizes that his organization is using machine learning to obtain information that is used against innocent people? Ignore it? Report it to authorities? Resign? Become a whistle-blower?

General considerations

  1. At what point does data collection and machine learning become an invasion of privacy or spying?
  2. Does the government of a nation have a right to spy on its own people for the sake of protecting the safety of the community?
  3. When do thoughts become crimes?
  4. Should there be laws enacted to provide people who are accused of thought crimes to defend themselves? Or should we just assume that the algorithms are always correct in their assessment?
  5. How do we deal with algorithms or datasets that necessarily take certain political or religious views in classifying statements for natural language processing (NLP)? Who gets to decide which political or religious bias is the correct one? Is it something to be decided on by consensus or rather by the software developers?
  6. When companies or governments utilize machine learning, what results are they obligated to disclose to the public?
  7. How should countries deal with cross-border communication or transactions in which certain machine learning applications are legal in one country but illegal in another? (This is similar to copyright but potentially much more complicated.)
  8. What happens when somebody claims that a system based on machine learning is leading to poor decisions, e.g., the iRobot movie where the robots aimed to take over the world? What actions can he/she legally take to challenge the system in a legal setting?
  9. Do people have a right to say no to IoT devices that will be used by governments or public utility companies for monitoring, e.g., smart meters, smart appliances? Should governments always give people the choice to opt out?
  10. Is there any way to regulate the use of quantum computers for the use of machine learning?
  11. At what point do people lose individuality and become lost in a hive mind?
  12. Should legislation be enacted to protect the rights of individuals to opt out of technology that makes them part of a hive mind?
  13. If the AI singularity has already happened, then does humanity have a say any longer in its future? or what percentage of humanity is already mind controlled and no longer able to break free from the matrix?
  14. If viruses can be engineered in computers and their outcomes can be simulated in computers, then how does machine learning aid in the development of viruses, their utilization in biowarfare, the timing of their release and the propaganda used to affect public sentiment in different countries or societies?
  15. How does quantum computing aid in the simulation outcomes of planned events and utilize machine learning for social engineering?
  16. How are the Sentient World Simulation (SWS) and machine learning being used for social engineering of individuals today?
  17. How do you feel about the SWS having an avatar for you that inputs all your digital activity in order to feed information to you for mind control?
  18. If synthetic biocomputing relies on nano biocomputers injected into people's bodies and WiFi signals to activate protein expression in various organs of the body, including the brain, how do you feel about receiving experimental injections that include lipid nanoparticles?


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