A the chatbot becomes hostile. A test version of a Roomba vacuum cleaner collects images of users in private situations. A black woman is falsely identified as a suspect based on facial recognition software, which tends to be less accurate in identifying women and people of color.
These incidents are not simple problems, but examples of more fundamental problems. As artificial intelligence and machine learning tools become increasingly integrated into daily life, ethical considerations are increasing, since privacy issues and race and gender bias in coding At spreading false information.
The general public depends on software engineers and computer scientists to ensure that these technologies are created safely and ethically. As a sociologist And doctoral candidate Interested in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education, we are currently researching how engineers in many different fields learn and understand their responsibilities to the public.
Yet our recent searchas well as that of other researchers, highlights a troubling reality: the next generation of engineers often seems ill-prepared to deal with the social implications of their work. What’s more, some appear listless about the moral dilemmas their careers can generate – just as advances in AI intensify these dilemmas.
Aware, but not prepared
As part of our current research, we surveyed more than 60 electrical engineering and computer science master’s students at a top engineering program in the United States. We asked students about their experiences facing ethical challenges in engineering, their knowledge of ethical dilemmas in the field, and how they would respond to future scenarios.
First, the good news: Most students recognized the potential dangers of AI and expressed concerns about the potential dangers of AI. private life and the potential to cause harm – such as how racial and gender bias can be written into algorithms, intentionally or unintentionally.
One student, for example, expressed dismay at the environmental impact of AI, saying that AI companies are using “more and more greenhouse energy, (for) minimal profits.” Others raised concerns about where and how AIs are applied, including for military technology and generate falsified information and images.
However, when asked, “Do you feel equipped to respond in concerning or unethical situations?” » students often said no.
” Absolutely not. …It’s a little scary,” one student responded. “Do you know who I’m supposed to go to?”
Another was troubled by the lack of training: “I would be faced with this without any experience. …Who knows how I will react.
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Other researchers have also found that many engineering students don’t feel satisfied with the ethics training they receive. Common training typically emphasizes professional codes of conduct rather than the complex sociotechnical factors that underlie ethical decision-making. Research suggests that even when presented with specific scenarios or case studies, engineering students struggle to recognize ethical dilemmas.
“A box to check”
Accredited engineering programs are required to “include topics related to professional and ethical responsibilities” to some extent.
Again ethics training is rarely emphasized in formal programs. A study evaluating undergraduate STEM degree programs in the United States found that coverage of ethical issues varied widely in terms of the content, amount and seriousness with which it is presented. Furthermore, an analysis of academic literature on engineering education revealed that ethics is often considered non-essential training.
Many engineering faculties express dissatisfaction with student understanding, but report feeling pressure from fellow engineers and students themselves to prioritize technical skills during their limited class time.
Researchers in a 2018 study surveyed more than 50 engineering professors and documented their hesitations — and sometimes even outright resistance – towards the integration of public well-being issues in their engineering courses. More than a quarter of the professors surveyed considered ethics and societal impacts to be outside of “real” engineering work.
About a third of the students we surveyed in our currently researching project share this semblance of apathy toward ethics training, calling ethics courses “just a box to check.”
“If I pay to take an ethics course as an engineer, I will be furious,” one said.
These attitudes sometimes extend to how students perceive the role of engineers in society. For example, one interviewee in our current study said that “an engineer’s responsibility is just to create this thing, design it, and… tell people how to use it. The problems (of misuse) do not concern them.
One of us, Erin Cech, followed a cohort of 326 engineering students from four American colleges. This research, published in 2014, suggests that engineers have indeed become less concerned as they study their ethical responsibilities and their understanding of the public consequences of technology. By following them after they left college, we found that their ethics concerns did not rebound once these new graduates entered the workforce.
Join the world of work
When engineers receive training in ethics as part of their degree, it seems to work.
Alongside the engineering professor Cynthia Finelliwe have managed a survey of more than 500 employed engineers. Engineers who have received formal training in ethics and public welfare in school are more likely to understand their responsibility to the public in their professional role and recognize the need for collective problem solving. Compared to engineers who had not received training, they were 30% more likely to have noticed an ethical issue in their workplace and 52% more likely to have taken action.
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More than a quarter of these practicing engineers reported having been confronted with a worrying ethical situation at work. However, around a third of them say they have never received training in the field of social assistance – neither during their studies nor during their career.
This gap in ethics education raises serious questions about preparing the next generation of engineers to navigate the complex ethical landscape of their field, especially when it comes to AI.
Of course, the responsibility for ensuring public welfare does not fall solely on engineers, designers and programmers. Businesses and lawmakers share responsibility.
But the people who design, test and refine this technology are the public’s first line of defense. We believe educational programs owe it to themselves – and to all of us – to take this training seriously.
