Legal, Ethical and Social Issues of Artificial Intelligence

6 ECTS credits
150 u studietijd

Aanbieding 1 met studiegidsnummer 4023521EER voor alle studenten in het 1e semester met een verdiepend master niveau.

Semester

1e semester

Inschrijving onder examencontract

Mogelijk

Beoordelingsvoet

Beoordeling (0 tot 20)

2e zittijd mogelijk

Onderwijstaal

Engels

Faculteit

Faculteit Recht en Criminologie

Verantwoordelijke vakgroep

Metajuridica

Onderwijsteam

Rosamunde Elise Van Brakel (titularis)

Onderdelen en contacturen

24 contacturen Hoorcollege
126 contacturen Zelfstudie en externe werkvormen

Inhoud

The students learn about the interdisciplinary dimensions and consequences of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and about the interaction between AI and society, in particular by going deeper into the legal, ethical and societal issues of AI. The course focuses on various case studies and research examples from the public and private sectors in Belgium but also internationally. A syllabus of mandatory and complementary texts will be made available on the Canvas site of this course. At the beginning of the semester, students receive a document that explains how the course is evaluated, objectives of the assignments, instructions about the form of the assignments, deadlines and evaluation criteria. The course requires active participation of the students. Participation consists of reading the required texts in advance of the lectures and online resources that are provided and active participation in discussions during the lectures.

Topics that will be discussed are amongst others:

Definitions, theories and history of AI
Technologies and socio-technical practices of AI
Regulation of AI including regulatory and policy developments of AI in the EU and beyond
Ethical issues of AI
Political and Social issues of AI
AI and fundamental rights
Bias and fairness of AI
AI, good governance and democracy
Algorithmic impact assessments and audits
Political economy of AI

These topics will be dealt with in an in-depth and critical manner, discussing both Belgian and international case studies from the private and public sector, which students are expected to explore further through self-study. Examples of case studies that can be discussed during the lectures include the criminal justice system, education, welfare, health, labor, humanitarian sector, self-driving cars, advertising, robots and smart home assistants. Guest lecturers will be invited on a rotating basis every year who will go more in depth into case studies or specific topics.

Studiemateriaal

Digitaal cursusmateriaal (Vereist) : digital syllabus, PowerPoint slides, blog posts, online articles, podcasts and short films, Canvas

Bijkomende info

All lectures for day students are recorded and made available to working students. Students are expected to actively participate in the lectures, read the required literature in advance of the lectures and participate in assignments. There is ample time during the lectures to ask questions. Two sessions will be organised (online) for working students to answer questions and provide the possibility to present their abstracts and papers. This course expects students to have acquired a Bachelor degree, have previous experience in writing academic papers and have sufficient knowledge of English.

Leerresultaten

Leerresultaat

KNOWLEDGE AND INSIGHT

The student develops critical thinking and in-depth interdisciplinary knowledge of AI theory and practice through various forms of knowledge transfer and independent study.
The student gains critical insight into the main legal, ethical and social aspects of AI.
The student acquires insight of interdisciplinary research approaches of AI.

SKILLS

The student is able to conduct an interdisciplinary analysis of the main legal, ethical and social aspects of AI practices in the public or private sector.
The student is able to reflect critically on the role of AI in society and how this is presented in online and offline media.

Beoordelingsinformatie

De beoordeling bestaat uit volgende opdrachtcategorieën:
Examen Mondeling bepaalt 25% van het eindcijfer

Examen Andere bepaalt 75% van het eindcijfer

Binnen de categorie Examen Mondeling dient men volgende opdrachten af te werken:

Examen Mondeling met een wegingsfactor 25 en aldus 25% van het totale eindcijfer.

Binnen de categorie Examen Andere dient men volgende opdrachten af te werken:

Examen Andere met een wegingsfactor 75 en aldus 75% van het totale eindcijfer.

Aanvullende info mbt evaluatie

Evaluation structure:

Paper (4000 words) Legal, ethical and social analysis of chosen case study: 75%.
Defense of paper at oral exam: 25%.

Evaluation criteria: For the paper:

content (50%): comprehensiveness of the analysis using the literature discussed during the lectures, originality, interdisciplinarity
form (50%): language use, structure and reasoning, coherent reference style

At the beginning of the semester, students choose a case study for their essay and prepare a short abstract of the chosen case study, which they present during lecture halfway the semester and on which they will receive feedback.

Working students should make themselves known to the lecturer to organise the two feedback /Q&A sessions.

Toegestane onvoldoende

Kijk in het aanvullend OER van je faculteit na of een toegestane onvoldoende mogelijk is voor dit opleidingsonderdeel.

Academische context