This document discusses the ethics of generative AI and provides an overview of key issues and perspectives. It begins by defining generative AI and describing how it has been used in education. Three major issues are then outlined relating to the environmental and human costs of training models, ensuring the data and models are used justly and explainably, and ensuring privacy and safety when models are used. Next, it reviews several existing AI ethics frameworks and principles. It then shares a different philosophical perspective on ethics and applies different ethical lenses. Finally, it issues a warning about unchecked technological progress but also expresses hope if this moment can help usher in a new era that masters the technology for human benefit.

1. The Ethics of
Generative AI
A Humanist’s Guide
Featuring: Jen Looper
Head of Academic Advocacy
AWS

2. This image
Hello, I’m Jen
Work: Head of Academic Advocacy at AWS - home of AWS Cloud Clubs
Author:
• Textbook: Computer Science for Kids (2023)
• Book: Illustrated AWS Cloud (forthcoming 2023)
Education: PhD (French) – Univ of California, Berkeley
Career-Switcher:
23 years a Developer
Mom of 2
Humanist
• PhD
This image was generated with a little help from AI!

3. AGENDA
THE ROAD TO
GENERATIVE AI
01 02
THE SPECIAL CASE
OF EDUCATION
03
THE MAJOR ISSUES
04
AI ETHICS
FRAMEWORKS
05
A DIFFERENT
PERSPECTIVE
06
WHAT HISTORY
TEACHES US + A
BIT OF HOPE

4. 1939
THE ROAD TO
GENERATIVE AI
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01
“Toto, I've got a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore.”

5. 1939
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6. 1939
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What is Generative AI?
A type of artificial intelligence that can create novel
content and ideas, including conversations, stories,
images, videos, and music.
Like all artificial intelligence, generative AI is
powered by machine learning models—very large
models that are pre-trained on vast amounts of data
and commonly referred to as Foundation Models
(FMs).

9. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog is an English-
language pangram — a sentence that contains all the letters
of the alphabet. The phrase is commonly used for touch-
typing practice.
Next word prediction with transformer based
networks.
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy ___
person
rabbit
dog

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13. 1921
THE SPECIAL
CASE OF
EDUCATION
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02
"Please love and care for this orphan child."

14. 1921
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15. 1921
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89% of students have admitted to using ChatGPT
Its usage dipped in the summer while students were
on holiday but is back on the rise now
From a student at Columbia, “writing is no longer
much of an example in thinking.”
Blanket AI bans have not worked and
are being rolled back
Every school/department is creating
their own policy; admissions
departments have not evolved at all

16. 1975
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3 MAJOR ISSUES
03
“We’re gonna need a bigger boat”

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18. 1975
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TRAINING AN LLM: human and environmental costs
https://time.com/6247678/openai-chatgpt-kenya-workers/
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/04/generative-ai-is-cool-but-lets-not-forget-its-human-and-environmental-costs/
https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/11/14/1063192/were-getting-a-better-idea-of-ais-true-carbon-footprint/

20. 1975
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THE DATA: justice and explainability
🧐

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USING THE MODEL: privacy and safety

22. 1942
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AI ETHICS
FRAMEWORKS
04
“Round up the usual suspects”

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social benefit, avoidance of bias, and accountability.
• Principles for Responsible AI by IBM (2018): IBM released a set of principles focusing on fairness, transparency,
accountability, and the need to ensure that AI benefits all of humanity.
• AI Ethics Guidelines by IEEE (2019): The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) released a
comprehensive set of AI ethics guidelines that cover various aspects of AI development and deployment.
• AI Ethics Framework by Microsoft (2020): Microsoft introduced its AI ethics framework, emphasizing fairness,
transparency, accountability, and inclusiveness.
• The Montreal Declaration for Responsible AI (2020): Developed by the Montreal AI Ethics Institute, this
declaration seeks to promote the ethical use of AI technologies.
• AI Ethics Guidelines by OECD (2020): The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
issued AI ethics guidelines to promote responsible AI development and use.
• AI Ethics Guidelines by the World Economic Forum (2020): The World Economic Forum released AI ethics
guidelines to help organizations navigate the ethical challenges posed by AI technologies.
• AI Ethics Principles by OpenAI (2021): OpenAI published a set of principles that emphasize broadly distributed
benefits, long-term safety, technical leadership, and cooperative orientation.
• AI Ethics Principles by Stanford's Institute for Human-Centered AI (2021): Stanford's Institute for Human-
Centered AI outlined a set of guiding principles for the ethical development and deployment of AI.
• The Global AI Ethics Consortium (GAIEC) (2021): This consortium, formed by multiple organizations, aims to
create a global standard for AI ethics.
• AI Ethics Framework by UNESCO (2021): UNESCO released a global AI ethics framework to guide the
development of AI technologies in line with human rights and ethical values.
• The European Union's AI Act (2021): The EU introduced regulations governing AI systems, including provisions
for ethical AI, transparency, and accountability.

25. 1942
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Transparency, Fairness, Accountability,
Human Oversight, Benefit to Humanity,
Privacy, Robustness and Safety, Inclusivity,
Collaboration, Long-term Considerations
10 General Elements

26. 1954
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A DIFFERENT
PERSPECTIVE
05
“Nothing has caused the human race
so much trouble as intelligence”

27. 1954
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"The field of ethics (or moral philosophy) involves
systematizing, defending, and recommending
concepts of right and wrong behavior."
https://www.iep.utm.edu/ethics/
Note! Ethics is not relative!

29. 1942
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How do we understand
what is right or wrong?
Abstract questioning
about value-bearing
things: "Is murder ever
permissible?"
Meta-Ethics
Determines standards of
the rightness or
wrongness of actions: "If
I am attacked with
deadly force, deadly
retaliation is
permissible."
Normative
Ethics
Applied
Ethics
Determines practical
application of moral
considerations. "In a case
of murder, first degree is
X and second degree is
Y"

30. 1942
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Let’s ask some questions about this technology
Meta-Ethics of Generative AI
• should we be allowed to use copyright material to train our models?
• should we be allowed to train models using confidential health care data?
• should we be allowed to scrape student or underage users’ PII?
Use case: you want to build a model to suggest the best locations for a large-
scale electrical grid project. What meta-ethical questions should you ask?

31. 1942
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Let’s set some test cases that will allow us to set standards
Normative Ethics of Generative AI
• A bot has been set up to distribute information about mental health
services. Should it be required to disclose its sources and the fact that it’s a
bot?
• An art-generating bot creates novel art based on images scraped from
Dribbble. Should the company who created it be required to pay royalties
to the artists?
• What are some normative ethical test cases we can set to ensure our
electrical grid design does no harm?

32. 1942
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Let’s determine practical applications of the standards we just set
Applied Ethics of Generative AI
• If you’re chatting to a bot, it has to disclose that it’s a bot
• AI coding helpers should list the software licenses of the code they’re trined
on
• Bots should be built with preventative measures against toxic or biased
output
• Models should disclose how much carbon was consumed in their training
What are some applied ethics we can set as standards for our new electrial grid
model design?

33. 1960
A WARNING AND
SOME HOPE
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“Avoir peur est le pire peché qui existe”

34. 1960
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We have officially entered a second industrial revolution
Children working in the mills
The Molasses Flood of 1919 in Boston
Lowell Mill Girls

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Generative AI == Printing Press?

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Let’s try to turn this Generative AI moment into a new Arts & Crafts
era
"We do not reject the machine, we welcome it. But we would desire to see it mastered." - C R Ashbee
Newcomb Pottery Vase
Stickley furniture William Morris Wallpaper

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THANKS!
X @jenlooper
https://jenlooper.com
https://s12d.com/students