Writing00: right v wrong
Like many, I have hoped and thought I was trying to live an ethical life without stopping to intentionally consider the precise question of how to live an ethical life. Even though it may seem that I cannot possibly achieve my goal if I don’t consciously know what my goal is, I think that is the more reliable way to living ethically. In my artificial intelligence class, we discussed how logic is a good way of proving things, but humans don’t often stop and only think a completely logical pathway of thought. Similarly, in my daily decisions, rarely do I ask myself explicitly, “is this ethical?” Rather, I use my values now buried in my subconscious and my habits to guide me to living a moral life. While I best strive to live an ethical life through living out my values and guiding principles, those guiding principles merit explicit consideration to ensure they help me live the most ethical life.
My frameworks of Catholicism and the Golden Rule shape my more specific guiding principles. I want to live well including treating others justly, be thankful, and give back. I believe that is how I can be an ethically responsible person. However, the devil’s in the details, and deciding exactly how to apply those grand aspirations can be difficult sometimes. To me, living well means being kind and treating others according to the Golden Rule. Based on this principle, deciding how much to give to others as part of the Golden Rule has puzzled me. I want everyone in the world to live a healthy life with basic needs met at the very least, so does buying a somewhat expensive concert ticket mean that I neglected that principle and should’ve donated that money to a trustworthy cause? I’m still trying to answer that question for myself. Another aspect of living well and ethically in my personal opinion is being sustainable to limit the harm to the environment. That seems like a responsible approach, but again, how far do I have to follow that principle to be satisfied with the positions I take? I limited eating cow meat over the summer and try to recycle, but should I do more or is that sufficient for me to be a morally ethical person? I suppose beyond treating other people next to me with respect, more ethical principles exist on a gradient where I can be doing a good job but still improve in certain areas.
With that idea of a gradient of responsible action and my guiding principles, the area of computer science that worries me ethically is mostly artificial intelligence and machine learning within that field. Over the summer, my team created a machine learning model about education, housing, and other statuses, and race and gender were features. I wrote a note in our documentation stressing that even if those factors show to be significant features, they are probably not the root cause, and discrimination in housing is more likely to cause housing discrepancies than purely race is. Especially with all the hype, I’m worried that novices or journalists will not understand how to interpret what these models tell us and don’t tell us. Additionally, I’m worried about bias in the increasingly relevant models and artificial intelligence which goes against my principle of treating others well. I want to live as an ethical person, especially in my field of work, so it is up to me and each individual to examine our own values and guiding principles and think about how they guide us especially in situations where we significantly affect others’ lives.
