Georgia Institute of Technology

Course Syllabus: CS6603 AI, Ethics, and Society

Fall 2022
Delivery: 100% Web-Based on Canvas
Dates course will run: August 22, 2022 – December 12, 2022

Instructor
Dr. Mahender Mandala
Email: [email protected]

Course Creator
Dr. Ayanna Howard
Email: [email protected]

Head TA
Vijay Sivanesan, P.E., PMP
Email: [email protected]

General Course Information

Description

Abuse of big data means your worst fears can come true. Are they being monitored by your
employer? Check. Government intrusions into your daily life? Check. Being turned down by college
admissions because you are predicted to not donate in 10-20 years? Check. Sounds a bit like the
visions in the Minority Report. Alas, machine learning algorithms are already being deployed by
industry, government, and, yes, even schools to make decisions that impact us in direct ways.
Such programs are typically promoted as fair and free of human biases, but humans who make
mistakes are programming, calibrating, and evaluating their performance. Thus resides the problem.
How do we design algorithms that effectively deal with the large amounts of data to train them while
ensuring their outcomes aren't misused? In this course, not only will we examine various AI/ML
techniques that can be used to counterbalance the potential abuse and misuse of learning from big
data, but we will focus on the effects of these technologies on individuals, organizations, and
society, paying close attention to what our responsibilities are as computing professionals.

Pre-Requisites

None. Although, it is expected that, throughout the course, you will develop working knowledge of
using Python (which will help you complete the assignments later in the semester). Several optional
exercises and additional lecture modules are provided to help you become familiar with Python and
using Jupyter notebooks.

Course Goals and Learning Outcomes

There are several outcomes for the course, based on four primary modules:
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Georgia Institute of Technology
Course Syllabus: CS6603 AI, Ethics, and Society
Module 1 - Data, Individuals, and Society

Objective: After completing this module, students will be able to understand the power and impact
that analytics and AI/ML have on individuals and society, especially concerning issues such as
fairness and bias, ethics, legality, data collection, and public use.

Module 2 – The BS of Big Data

Objective: After completing this module, students will be able to understand the underlying
components of big data, apply basic statistical techniques to data scenarios, and understand the
issues faced when learning from big data, ranging from data biases, overfitting, causation vs.
correlation, etc.

Module 3 – Fairness in AI/ML

Objective: After completing this module, students can understand and apply basic AI/ML
techniques to data scenarios, focusing on identifying fairness and bias issues in designing
decision-making systems. We will work systematically towards understanding technical approaches
to current AI/ML applications such as facial recognition, natural language processing, and
predictive algorithms, all while being mindful of its social and legal context.

Module 4 – Bias Mitigation and Future Opportunities

Objective: After completing this module, students can utilize tools and methods to quantify bias and
examine ways to use algorithmic fairness to mitigate it, considering ethical and legal issues.
Students will apply their knowledge of analytics and AI/ML to transform a current biased dataset
into a more objective solution.

In this class, you will be challenged to broaden your understanding of state-of-the-art AI/ML
algorithms and solutions, considering their potential impacts on society. You will have ample
opportunity to analyze various situations critically and viewpoints provided in papers, books, on the
web, and from your observations. You will be able to practice your learned knowledge by writing
coherent and healthy-structured critiques of situations and papers, leading and participating in
class discussions, and designing your algorithmic solutions. The issue of data misuse and abuse is
not easily solvable; concrete right or wrong answers are not easily determined until after solutions
are typically deployed into society. Given this, you are entitled to your opinions on any topics
presented throughout the course, whatever they happen to be. You will not be penalized for your
viewpoints; however, you must be able to support your viewpoints and resulting solutions
effectively. This means showing that you have given your approach to a problem some thought, can
discuss its various trade-offs and implications and can be supportive of other viewpoints, even
though your personal views may differ.

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Course Syllabus: CS6603 AI, Ethics, and Society
Course Materials
Course Text

Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy by
Cathy O’Neil (2016)

Additional Materials/Resources

Additional assigned readings will be included with each assignment.

Classroom Management Tools

● Video Lectures: All video lectures are located on Canvas.
● Projects: are located on Canvas.
● Graded Discussions: are located on Canvas.
● Reading Materials: are located on Canvas.
● Ed Discussion: is located on Canvas.
● Grades: is located on Canvas.
● Exams: are located on Canvas using Honorlock

Course Requirements, Assignments & Grading

Assignment Distribution and Grading Scale

Assignments Weight

Homework Projects 40%

Written Critiques 10%

Mid-Term Exam 10%

Final Project 15%

Final Exam 10%

Class Discussion/Exercises (Case Studies and, Exercises) 15%

Total 100%

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Course Syllabus: CS6603 AI, Ethics, and Society
Grading Scale

Your final grade will be assigned as a letter grade according to the following scale:

A 90-100%

B 80-89%

C 70-79%

D 60-69%

F 0-59%

Assignments Due Dates (Time zone)

Assignment due dates are Sundays at 11:59 PM Anywhere on Earth time. We will not accept
assignments submitted late due to time zone issues. We recommend changing your time zone in
Canvas to show the due date in your local time. There are no exceptions.

Late and Make-up Work Policy

Homework Projects and Written Critique assignments will be accepted with a deduction of 10% per
24-hour period starting after the due date submission time. Assignments over 3-days late (i.e., three
24-hour periods) will not be accepted. No time extensions are provided for the Exams, Final Project,
and Class Discussion/Exercises. There will be no make-up work provided for missed assignments.
Please verify the information in your assignment before submission. We will not be able to
make any exceptions for submitting the wrong assignment or insufficient otherwise
inadequate information in the assignment.

Of course, emergencies (illness, family emergencies) will happen. In those instances, please get in
touch with the Dean. The Dean of Students is equipped to verify emergencies and pass
confirmation on to all your classes. For consistency, we ask all students to do this in an emergency.

Office Hours

This class uses the chat tool Ed for its office hours. Ed office hours are not scheduled at specific
times; instead, the teaching team will typically respond quickly on Ed by end-of-day. You may also
feel free to email or post privately on Ed to set up a chat via an alternate technology.

Feedback

Every semester, we make changes and tweaks to the course formula. As a result, we try new things
every semester, and some of these things may not work. We ask for your patience and support as
we figure things out, and in return, we promise that we, too, will be fair and understanding,
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Course Syllabus: CS6603 AI, Ethics, and Society
especially with anything that might impact your grade or performance in the class. Second, we
want to consistently get feedback on improving and expanding the course for future iterations. You
can take advantage of the feedback box on Ed especially if you want to gather input from others in
the class), give us feedback on the surveys, or contact us directly via private Ed messages.

Technology Requirements and Skills

Computer Hardware and Software
● High-speed Internet connection
● Laptop or desktop computer with a minimum of a 2 GHz processor and 2 GB of RAM
● Windows for PCs OR Mac iOS for Apple computers.
● Complete Microsoft Office Suite or comparable and the ability to use Adobe PDF software
(install, download, open, and convert)
● Mozilla Firefox, Chrome, and Safari browsers (Note: Honorlock requires students to use
Chrome)

Canvas

This class will use Canvas to deliver course materials to online students. ALL course materials and
assessments will take place on this platform.

Proctoring Information

The midterm exam will be proctored with open notes, pen/paper, and a calculator. A proctored
exam is similar to the one you would take in the classroom. These exams are delivered via a tool
called Honorlock. Honorlock is an online proctoring service that allows you to take your exam from
the comfort of your home. You DO NOT need to create an account, download software, or schedule
an appointment in advance. Honorlock is available 24/7; a computer, a working webcam, and a
stable Internet connection are needed. You will need Google Chrome and download the Honorlock
Chrome Extension to start. You can download the extension at:
www.honorlock.com/extension/install.

When you are ready to take the exam, you would log into CANVAS, go to the course, and click on
the exam link. Clicking Launch Proctoring will begin the Honorlock authentication process, where
you will take a picture of yourself, show your ID, and complete a scan of your room. Honorlock will
be recording your exam session via the webcam and your screen. Honorlock also has an integrity
algorithm that can detect search-engine use, so please do not attempt to search for answers, even
if it's on a secondary device. If you encounter any issues, you may contact them by live chat, phone
(844-243-2500), and email ([email protected]).

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Course Syllabus: CS6603 AI, Ethics, and Society
Course Policies, Expectations & Guidelines
Communication Policy

You are responsible for knowing the following information:

1. Anything posted to this syllabus
2. Anything emailed directly to you by the teaching team (including announcements Or Posts
via Ed) 24 hours after receiving such an email.

Because Ed announcements are emailed to you, you should check your Georgia Tech email once
every 24 hours to remain updated on new information during the semester. Georgia Tech generally
recommends students check their Georgia Tech email once every 24 hours.

We generally prefer to handle communication via Ed to help with collaboration among the teaching
team, but we understand Ed is not ideal for having information “pushed” to you. We may contact
you via a private Ed post instead of an email. Still, if we do so, we will choose to send email
notifications immediately, bypassing your settings, to ensure you’re alerted. This type of
communication will also spring under #2 above.

Note that this means you won’t be responsible for knowing information communicated in several
other methods we’ll be using. You aren’t responsible for knowing anything posted to Ed that isn’t
linked from an official announcement. You don’t need to worry about missing critical information so
long as you keep up with your email and understand the documents on this website. This also
applies reverse: we do not monitor our Canvas message boxes and may not respond to direct
emails. If you need to get in touch with the course staff, please post privately to Ed (either to all
Instructors or to an instructor individually) or tag the instructor in the relevant post.

Online Student Conduct and (N)etiquette

Communicating appropriately in the online classroom can be challenging. To minimize this

challenge, it is important to remember several points of “internet etiquette.”

That will smooth communication for both students and instructors:

● Read first, Write later. Read the ENTIRE set of posts/comments on a discussion board
before posting your reply to prevent repeating commentary or asking questions that have
already been answered.
● Avoid language that may come across as intense or offensive. Language can be easily
misinterpreted in written and electronic communication. Review email and discussion board
posts BEFORE submitting. Humor and sarcasm may be easily misinterpreted by your
reader(s). Try to be as matter-of-fact and professional as possible.
● Follow the language rules of the Internet. Do not write using all capital letters because it will
appear as shouting. Also, the use of emoticons can be helpful when used to convey
nonverbal feelings. ☺
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Course Syllabus: CS6603 AI, Ethics, and Society
● Consider the privacy of others. Ask permission before giving out a classmate's email
address or other information.
● Keep attachments small. If it is necessary to send pictures, change the size to an
acceptable 250kb or less (one free, web-based tool to try is picresize.com).
● No inappropriate material. Do not forward virus warnings, chain letters, jokes, etc., to
classmates or instructors. The sharing of pornographic material is forbidden.

NOTE: The instructor reserves the right to remove posts that are not collegial and do not meet the
Online Student Conduct and Etiquette guidelines.

University Use of Electronic Email

A university-assigned student e-mail account is the official university means of communication with
all students at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Students are responsible for all information sent
to them via their university-assigned e-mail account. Students who forward information to their
university e-mail account are responsible for all information sent to any other e-mail account,
including attachments. To stay current with university information, students must check their official
university e-mail accounts and other electronic communications frequently and consistently.
Recognizing that some communications may be time-critical, the university recommends that
electronic communications be checked minimally twice a week.

Plagiarism & Academic Integrity

Georgia Tech aims to cultivate a community based on trust, academic integrity, and honor.
Students are expected to act according to the highest ethical standards. All students enrolled at
Georgia Tech and all its campuses are to perform their academic work according to standards set
by faculty members, departments, schools, and colleges of the university; cheating and plagiarism
constitute fraudulent misrepresentation for which no credit can be given and for which appropriate
sanctions are warranted and will be applied. For information on Georgia Tech's Academic Honor
Code, please visit http://www.catalog.gatech.edu/policies/honor-code/ or
http://www.catalog.gatech.edu/rules/18/.

Any student suspected of cheating or plagiarizing on an exam, exercise, or assignment will be

reported to the Office of Student Integrity, investigate the incident, and identify the appropriate
penalty for violations.

Accommodations for Students with Disabilities

If you are a student with learning needs that require unique accommodation, contact the Office of
Disability Services at (404) 894-2563 or http://disabilityservices.gatech.edu/ as soon as possible to
make an appointment to discuss your unique needs and to obtain an accommodations letter.
Please also e-mail me as soon as possible to set up a time to discuss your learning needs.

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Course Syllabus: CS6603 AI, Ethics, and Society
Student-Faculty Expectations Agreement

At Georgia Tech, we believe it is essential to strive for an atmosphere of mutual respect,

acknowledgment, and responsibility between faculty members and the student body. See
http://www.catalog.gatech.edu/rules/22/ for an articulation of some basic expectations that you can
have of me and that I have of you. Ultimately, simple respect for knowledge, hard work, and cordial
interactions will help build the environment we seek. Therefore, I encourage you to remain
committed to the ideals of Georgia Tech while in this class.

Subject to Change Statement

The syllabus and course schedule may be subject to change. Changes will be communicated via
the Ed announcement tool. It is the responsibility of students to check Ed for instructor posts,
email messages, and course announcements to stay current in their online courses.

Course Schedule
Week/Dates Topics Deliverables
1 Lesson 1 Data Individuals, and Society
August 29 Introduction
Lesson 2 Overview

2 Lesson 3 Ethics vs Law Assignment: FB

September 5 Lesson 4 Data Collection Case Study: Emails Exposed
Case Study: Loan Denied

3 Lesson 5 Fairness and Bias Case Study: Facebook

September 12 Manipulation

4 Lesson 6 BS of Big Data & Stats 101 Overview Exercise: Anscombe’s Quartet
September 19 Lesson 7 Python and Stats 101 Exercise: Smoking Sampling Bias
Design
Assignment: Stats 101

5 Lesson 8 Descriptive Statistics Written Critique: Ethical

September 26 Lesson 9 Inferential Statistics: Sampling Bias Autonomous Vehicles

6 Lesson 10 Inferential Statistics: Causation vs Mid-Term Exam (Ethics and Stats)

October 3 Correlation
Lesson 11 Inferential Statistics: Confidence

7 Lesson 12 AI/ML Techniques: Word Embeddings Case Study: Word Embeddings

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Course Syllabus: CS6603 AI, Ethics, and Society
Week/Dates Topics Deliverables
October 10 Lesson 13 Bias in Word Embeddings Exercise: Bias in Word
Embeddings

8 Lesson 14 AI/ML Techniques: Facial Recognition Case Study: Facial Recognition

October 17 Lesson 15 Bias in Facial Recognition Assignment: AI/ML Part I

9 Lesson 16 AI/ML Techniques: Predictive Exercise: Predictive Algorithms

October 24 Algorithms Case Study: Predictive
Lesson 17 Crime-based Predictive Algorithms Algorithms

10 Assignment: AI/ML Part II

October 31 Lesson 18 Bias in Predictive Algorithms

11 Lesson 19 Fairness and Bias

November 7

12 Lesson 20 Fairness and Bias Assessment Tools Assignment: Fairness and Bias
November 14

13 Lesson 21 AI/ML Techniques for Bias Mitigation Exercise: AI Fairness 360

November 21 Exercise: What-If Tool

14 Lesson 22 AI, Society, and Ethics Wrap-up Written Critique: What-If Tool
November 28

15 Final Project
December 5

16 Final Exam
December 12

17 End-of-Course Survey, CIOS

December 19 Survey