1.5.2 Moral and Ethical Flashcards
What has computerisation led to?
Efficiency and productivity in workforce increased
Removal of the need to work in a repetitive and tedious environments.
There has been a rise in services being offered exclusively online. What has this meant?
Reduced costs of renting and cut labour costs for businesses.
Where is automated decision making used?
Application processes for mortgages, loans and jobs.
Power distribution systems.
Driverless cars.
What is the issue with relying entirely on automated decision making?
Could result in people being treated unfairly.
Why must algorithms be tested thoroughly?
To produce software which is free of bias.
What is Artificial Intelligence?
The ability of a computer to replicate human intelligence.
Examples of where AI is used?
- In medicine to draw links between illnesses and form diagnoses.
- Neural networks, for pattern detection and identifying financial fraud
- In voice recognition systems (smart home systems)
What does AI raise questions about?
Accountability
- Who is responsible when things go wrong?
- What rights should sentient AI have?
What negative impact has technology becoming more affordable and accessible had?
More people throw away more devices than ever before.
What harmful effects does technology have on the environment?
- Computer components are toxic and can contaminate water supplies.
- Electricity to power our device requires using fossil fuels which emit greenhouse gases, contributing to global warming.
- Impacts future generations
What environmentally friendly effects does technology have?
Smart home systems using sensors to determine when heating and lighting should be switched.
Devices offering ‘Sleep’ and ‘Standby’ features.
What is censorship?
The act of suppressing the content that people are able to view, publish and access.
What kind of content do ISPs block?
Content associated with terrorism and extremist political beliefs.
What is the idea of a ‘Free Internet’?
No censorship or filtering.
What might companies use censorship for?
Maintaining productivity and preventing distractions.
How is technology used to monitor behaviour?
Surveillance systems (CCTV) used to detect crime.
Ankle monitors track people under house arrest.
Employers monitor productivity by tracking websites workers are accessing.
What two arguments do some people make about the monitoring of behaviour?
Unethical, and contravenes basic human rights.
Essential to put people off committing crime.
What is big data?
A large amount of data from a number of sources.
What is data mining?
Using big data to identify connections between two variables.
What ethical concerns does using data mining carry?
Do companies have responsibility to feedback trends they uncover to people involved.
Pressure on large firms to be more transparent about the data they collect.
What do offensive communications include?
Online harassment, cyber bullying or stalking.
What does the Malicious Communications Act introduced in 1998 do?
Makes it a criminal offence to send indecent or offensive messages online.
What does the Equality Act introduced in 2010 do?
Make it illegal to discriminate against providing a service to a certain group of people.
What should web developers consider to make it easy for disadvantaged people?
Alt text for images and a screen magnifier option.
Easy to navigate between pages
Multiple languages (use unicode)
How colours are interpreted around the world (some are unlucky)
