Winter 2023: Introduction to the Social Consequences of Computing

Computing is now used in every facet of life affecting countless people, including making policy decisions about people in lending, policing, criminal justice, admissions, advertising, and hiring. In doing so, the process of computing and algorithm design now involves understanding the role of computing in society.
This class will introduce you to the ways in which applications of computing affect societal institutions and how these social consequences produce questions about how to conceptualize, critique, and ensure our all-too-human values in computing. To accomplish this, we will explore computing, particularly artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, including exploring the role of AI in everything from personalization to surveillance to online speech. We will critically examine the philosophical and sociological underpinnings of these values and the strategies commonly used to promote them, and seek to connect these conceptualizations to the emerging algorithmic tools proposed for promoting those values. In order to practice reasoning through these problems, this class will feature programming in Python. No previous programming experience in Python is needed.