The document summarizes expectations and assessments for an Artificial Intelligence course regarding ethical and social implications. It is expected that instructors will spend an hour discussing these topics. Students are expected to research a topic on moral/ethical AI issues, summarize their findings, and write a paper presenting different positions on the issue and their own stance supported by arguments. Representative student essays of different quality levels will be kept for accreditation purposes. The assessment focuses on students' understanding of ethical considerations related to advances in intelligent systems.

1. Cal Poly Pomona Computer Science Department
Course Assessment Form (Expectations)
CS 420 Artificial Intelligence
INSTRUCTIONS
Please indicate which of the following learning outcomes you expect most students in your class
to meet. In the EVIDENCE column, list the specific instruments (e.g. Quiz 3, Homework 5, …)
that provide evidence that the outcome has been met.
DO NOT
EXPECT EXPECT EVIDENCE PO-LIST
1. Understanding the role of search in AI, and ability t t 2
to formulate AI problems as search problems
2. Understanding of, and ability to use, the general
graph search algorithm, best-first search, A – t t 2
search, and A* - search.
3. Understanding of, and ability to use, specialized
search techniques for constraint-satisfaction t t 2
problems and two-agent games
4. Understanding of, and ability to use, knowledge
representation techniques such as rules, t t 2
predicate calculus, semantic nets, frames and
scripts
5. Understanding of, and ability to use, resolution
as an inference mechanism for logic based query t t 2
answering systems
6. Understanding of, and ability to use, Situation
Calculus and STRIPS to formalize reasoning t t 2
about actions and to do temporal projections and
planning
7. Understanding of neural networks and ability to
design training procedure for a single TLU and t t 2
for a neural network
8. Understanding of machine learning t t 2
9. Understanding of genetic programming t t 2
10. Understanding of reasoning with uncertain t t 2
information
11. Understanding of ethical and social implications t t 5
of the advances in creation of intelligent systems
12. t t
BIS 3/20/05

2. Cal Poly Pomona Computer Science Department
Student Assessment Form (Fulfillment)
CS 420 Artificial Intelligence
INSTRUCTIONS
Please examine each student portfolio to assess the extent to which each of the following
learning outcomes appear to have been met by this student.
NOT
MET MET
1. Understanding the role of search in AI, and ability to
formulate AI problems as search problems
5 4 3 2 1
2. Understanding of, and ability to use, the general graph
search algorithm, best-first search, A – search, and A* - 5 4 3 2 1
search.
3. Understanding of, and ability to use, specialized search
techniques for constraint-satisfaction problems and 5 4 3 2 1
two-agent games
4. Understanding of, and ability to use, knowledge
representation techniques such as rules, predicate 5 4 3 2 1
calculus, semantic nets, frames and scripts
5. Understanding of, and ability to use, resolution as an
inference mechanism for logic based query answering 5 4 3 2 1
systems
6. Understanding of, and ability to use, Situation Calculus
and STRIPS to formalize reasoning about actions and 5 4 3 2 1
to do temporal projections and planning
7. Understanding of neural networks and ability to design
training procedure for a single TLU and for a neural 5 4 3 2 1
network
8. Understanding of machine learning 5 4 3 2 1
9. Understanding of genetic programming 5 4 3 2 1
10. Understanding of reasoning with uncertain information 5 4 3 2 1
11. Understanding of ethical and social implications of the
advances in creation of intelligent systems
5 4 3 2 1
12. 5 4 3 2 1
BIS 3/20/05

3. Ethics & Social Issues in CS 420
by Halina Przymusinska & Barry Soroka
May 5, 2005
RESOURCES
General Considerations. AI differs from other areas of CS with respect to ethical issues. Much
discussion of ethics and CS concerns the ethical use of existing artifacts. Today there are few AI
products to which this type of considerations is applicable. AI is still mostly an area of ongoing
research, and ethical questions involve: (1) What ethical questions would be caused by creation
of artifacts? and (2) What precautions should be taken so that artifacts do not harm society?
Thus, there is much science fiction about AI and ethics, but few actual case studies.
We don’t think that Sara Baase, A Gift of Fire, contains a relevant chapter.
http://www.aaai.org/AITopics/html/ethics.html
This is the ethics website of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence. Many
pointers to news articles.
http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/pipermail/ukcrypto/2000-January/007625.html
This site describes a conference on Artificial Intelligence, Ethics and (Quasi)Human
Rights. It enumerates many questions about AI and society. The conference itself
probably presents many papers on this topic.
http://www.nickbostrom.com/ethics/ai.html
A paper, Ethical Issues in Advanced Artificial Intelligence, by Nick Bostrom.
http://www.qub.ac.uk/phil/UCAS_Event/ethics.htm
One professor’s website. Many pointers.
http://www.cs.wcupa.edu/~epstein/stoplay.html
Pointer to stories and plays about ethical and social implications of AI, written by
Professor Richard G Epstein.
http://www.dcs.ex.ac.uk/~hlgaylar/aisb.pdf
What Can AI Do for Ethics? by Helen Seville & Debora G. Field. This paper discusses
the possible uses of AI in ethical decision-making.
http://www.cs.bath.ac.uk/%7Ejjb/web/aiethics98.html
Joanna Bryson & Phil Kime, Just Another Artifact: Ethics and the Empirical Experience of
AI. What is the provenance of this paper?
INSTRUCTOR EXPECTATIONS
Instructors are expected to spend about one hour discussing the social and ethical implications of
AI.
STUDENT EXPECTIONS
Developments in AI research almost daily open new perspectives and thus involve moral and
ethical questions that have to be addressed in order to prevent human creativity from going awry.
To make students aware of such issues and to encourage them to give those issues some
thought we can give an assignment which has the following structure:
1. Research different sources (journals, books, newspapers, web, etc.) for a topic that in
your opinion qualifies under “Moral and Ethical Issues in AI” .
2. Write a short summary of what you have found.
3. If the topic you proposed is not accepted by instructor GOTO 1., otherwise write a paper
which consists of two parts:
• Careful overview of the issues and author’s position taken on those issues.
• Your own position on the same issues and clear argument in defense of that
position.
MATERIAL FOR ABET
Copies of three representative essays — Excellent, Satisfactory and Poor.
BIS 3/20/05