Artificial Intelligence and Ethics: Should AI be held Responsible for ethical errors

  FINAL RESEARCH PROJECT
ASSIGNMENT INSTRUCTIONS
ILR260 Final Research Project:
Explore an ethical or social issue surrounding some aspect of
information technology in an analytical research paper.
DUE:
Last day of the course.
OVERVIEW:
You will develop your Research Project in a series of clearly defined, manageable
steps over the duration of the course.
One of our course objectives in ILR260 is to “explore ethical and social issues
surrounding information technology,” and your research project—pieces of which
Definitions of “information technology” (noun)
…the study or use of systems (especially computers and telecommunications)
for storing, retrieving, and sending information.
[https://www.google.com/search?q=information+technology]
…the technology involving the development, maintenance, and use of computer
systems, software, and networks for the processing and distribution of data.
[https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/information%20technology]
…the development, implementation, and maintenance of computer hardware
and software systems to organize and communicate information electronically.
[https://www.dictionary.com/browse/information-technology?s=t]
ILR260 Final Research Project Instructions
2
you will share with classmates—will serve this objective and become part of the
content of the course.
Often students will select projects that relate to their academic majors or current
jobs, but this is not a formal requirement. The most important thing is to pursue a
research question that genuinely interests you. Information technology now
touches just about every area of life. The point of your paper will be to craft a
response, however preliminary, to a real question about some aspect of
information technology.
A “real” question is one that has no single, straightforward answer and that will
require you, in addressing the question, to draw upon and synthesize information
from a variety of sources. Another way of saying this is that you will be addressing
a significant issue in your research project; an issue is any claim or statement that
is called into question. A significant issue is one that might be considered
controversial; that is, reasonable arguments may be advanced for opposing or
alternative positions on this issue. While you will not be presenting an argument for
one position or another, it is helpful to keep this in mind while deciding on and
researching your question.
Questions that lend themselves to simple explanatory or “how-to” answers (for
example, “What is Twitter?” or “How can people protect their computers from
hackers?”) will not work for this assignment. Neither will questions that have
obvious or commonly known answers. Think about it this way: there should be a
worthwhile purpose for taking the time and effort to research and write about it.
Questions that will work for this assignment appear near the end of this document.
Choose one of these for your Research Project. Don’t worry if a classmate selects
the same question. Each of you will inevitably turn up different kinds of sources
and produce very different final projects.
If none of the questions interest you…
There should be at least one question on the list that interests you or that you can
modify so it does interest you. But if you’d like, you may propose a question not
included on the list. Make sure the question you are proposing addresses an ethical
or social issue related to information technology. Also make sure it is not overly
broad. Ask yourself:
* Could an entire book potentially be written on this question? If so, the question is
too broad for a short research paper.
ILR260 Final Research Project Instructions
3
* Does the question contain multiple components? If so, select one component to
focus on in your paper. (Hint: If your question includes a comma, it is probably too
broad.)
As you develop the project, keep in mind that our focus in ILR260 is inquiry, rather
than argumentation. Argumentation is a worthy area of study and is a focus of
other courses you may take at the university. In your ILR260 research project,
however, your primary goal is to explore your research question with depth and
sophistication rather than to persuade an audience of a particular viewpoint. While
you will need to propose some sort of answer to your question in the final version
of your project, that answer may be tentative. It may, for example, point in the
direction of further questions and further research. It may identify contradictions in
your research that are at this time irresolvable. Again, in writing this paper, focus
on exploring, interpreting, and synthesizing ideas rather than on “defending” a
thesis.
Keep in mind, too, that you will carry out your research using published
information and opinions. You should not try to do primary research of your own,
such as surveys or experiments. This kind of research is specialized, varies from
one discipline to the next, and is beyond the scope of ILR260.
As you progress through each stage of the project, you might find it helpful to
keep in mind that the skills you are practicing have applications well beyond this
course, and also beyond the academy. Whether you are writing a college paper or a
workplace report, or simply explaining something to another person, you will want
to be able to connect ideas in logical ways, to illustrate those ideas with clear
explanations and examples, and to explain the nature of any sources you’ve
consulted.
EXAMPLE
Please see the Sample Annotated Paper in APA Style for an example of correct APA
formatting of an academic research paper. [Note: This APA-annotated sample paper
is not an example of a research project completed in ILR260; however, there is
such a sample student paper available in Module 3 Course Resources.]
COMPONENTS OF THE RESEARCH PROJECT
1. Final Research Project Introduction (due end of Module 1)
2. Library Research Report (due end of Module 2)
3. Rough Draft of Research Project (due end of Module 3)
4. Final Research Project (due end of Module 4)
ILR260 Final Research Project Instructions
4
FINAL DRAFT SPECIFICATIONS
LENGTH
900-1200 words (not including title page and references list)
FORMAT
Please use APA Style. (If you are majoring in English, you may use MLA instead.)
Your final project will not include an abstract (but if you would like help with how
to write an abstract for future reference, please see the document, “How to Write a
Research Abstract” in the Library Research Guide for Module 1).
AUDIENCE
Address your paper to a general audience. Your ILR260 classmates have a wide
range of backgrounds and academic interests; assume this kind of broad
readership when you write your research project. Assume that your readers are not
specialists in your topic area. Ideas must be fully explained and made accessible to
a general readership.
SOURCES
Your research should emphasize peer-reviewed, scholarly journal articles from
the NU library’s databases. (Be assured that the database search skills you develop
will have applications beyond NU.) Reference as many journals or articles as
needed in order to substantively explore your research question, but no fewer than
4. For additional guidance, see the source-selection criteria included in the Module
2 Library Research Report assignment.
A table of the grading criteria appears in the final section of this document; the
Grading Rubric for the Final Research Project that will be used to evaluate your
work is located in Module 1 and Module 4 Course Resources.
ILR260 Final Research Project Instructions
5
ILR260 RESEARCH QUESTIONS: Topic Selection List
Law and Society
1. Do people still need public libraries?
2. What is the future of the United States Postal Service?
3. What is the future of predictive policing?
4. How is the dark web challenging law enforcement?
5. What is the future of military robots?
6. What are the most significant repercussions of a possible nationwide cyber-terrorist
attack?
7. What is the future of facial recognition technology?
8. Should humans use identity chips?
9. What is the future of cryptocurrencies?
Media and Culture
10.Can competitors challenge Big Tech’s market dominance (Apple, Amazon, Google,
Meta, Microsoft)?
11.Does video-game violence, or media portrayals of violence in general, desensitize
people to real-life violence?
Health and Healthcare
12.Can therapists effectively deliver psychotherapy over the internet?
13.How will sociable robots change caregiving?
14.How effective is virtual reality therapy in the treatment of _______? (choose a focus–
for example, PTSD or phobias)
15.How do electronic medical records affect the quality of patient care?
16.How does social media use affect school performance?
17.Do fitness trackers improve health?
Interpersonal Communication / Relationships
18.How does online infidelity affect relationships?
19.Is face-to-face communication still necessary for forming bonds with others?
20.Does texting or using social media lessen our in-person communication abilities?
21.Should we be concerned about people forming emotional attachments to robots?
ILR260 Final Research Project Instructions
6
Education and Parenting
22.How does extensive internet use affect the lives of young people?
23.What should be the role of schools in preventing cyberbullying?
24.Does internet pornography affect the sexual attitudes and behaviors of adolescents?
25.Should parents use surveillance technology to monitor their children?
26.Will online learning ever replace traditional models of education?
Work
27.How will/does [identify specific information technology] change [identify specific
occupation]?
28.Should telecommuting become the norm for people with desk jobs?
29.Should employers use social media profiles in hiring decisions?
The Ethics of Technology and Information Media
30.Considering the abuse of manual labor in some foreign markets, at whose expense
does this technology empower me?
31.How does the use of technology affect our treatment of others in the online space?
32.Does technology automate or outsource labor or responsibilities that are better
served by the “human touch”?
33.What possibilities for action does technology open up (or foreclose)? Is it good that
these actions are now possible (or no longer possible?)
34.How does the use of technology shape my vision of a good life?
35.Does using technology require people to think more critically?
Grading Rubric
[Note: Points will be deducted for deviations from assignment requirements/specifications.
Greater deviations will result in greater deductions. Per course policy, scores of 50% and
higher are reserved for submissions that attempt to meet assignment
requirements/specifications. Rubric starts on next page…]
ILR260 Final Research Project Instructions
7
A B C D F
Focus is clear,
specific, and
sustained.
Focus is clear and
sustained focus.
Focus is basically
clear; some content
may deviate from
stated focus.
Focus is unclear
and/or unsustained.
Lacks focus; lacks
coherence.
Approach is
sophisticated.
Approach is
appropriate to
college-level research
writing and to the
ILR260 project
specifically.
Approach is
somewhat simplistic
and/or somewhat too
broad.
Approach is overly
simplistic and/or
overly broad.
Approach is
inappropriate to
college-level writing
and/or the
assignment
Source selection
meets assignment
requirements;
sources are strong
and skillfully chosen
for direct relevance
and for the
substance and
complexity they
bring to the inquiry.
Source selection
meets assignment
requirements;
sources are strong
and relevant to the
inquiry.
Sources meet
assignment
requirements. A
small percentage of
the sources may
exhibit problems
such as insufficient
currency, relevancy,
or depth.
Source selection
suggests attempt to
meet assignment
requirements, but a
significant
percentage of
sources exhibit
problems such as
insufficient currency,
relevancy, or depth.
Sources mostly do not
meet assignment
requirements. Many
source-selection
problems.
Source identification
(Who?) is precise and
smoothly handled.
Source identification
(Who?) is
competently handled.
Source identification
(Who?) may be
imprecise or
awkward in places.
Source identification
(Who?) is imprecise
or awkward, and
occasionally missing.
Source identification
(Who?) is mostly
missing, or is mostly
incorrect.
ILR260 Final Research Project Instructions
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Explanation of
source content
(What? How? So
What?) is complete,
accurate, and
concise.
Explanation of
source content
(What? How? So
What?) is complete
and accurate.
Explanation of
source content
(What? How? So
What?) is sufficiently
well-developed and
sufficiently accurate.
Some source content
(What? How? So
What?) is
misrepresented or is
not sufficiently wellexplained.
Most source content
(What? How? So What?)
is misrepresented or
is not sufficiently wellexplained.
Strong source
integration; research
project
demonstrates
sophisticated sense
of when to use a
direct quote versus a
paraphrase versus a
summary, and of
how to incorporate
source material into
sentences and
paragraphs.
Good source
integration; research
project demonstrates
a good
understanding
overall of when to
use a direct quote
versus a paraphrase
versus a summary,
and of how to
incorporate source
material into
sentences and
paragraphs.
Uneven source
integration. For
example, occasional
excess use of direct
quoting, or
incorporation of
sources in ways that
are occasionally
unclear or that make
the material difficult
to understand.
Poor source
integration. Overall,
research project
demonstrates an
inadequate
understanding of
when to use a direct
quote versus a
paraphrase versus a
summary, and of
how to incorporate
source material into
sentences and
paragraphs.
Sources are not
incorporated
effectively in most or
all of the research
project.
Strong synthesis;
research project
makes a
contribution to
knowledge.
Good synthesis of
ideas.
Synthesis is present,
but underdeveloped,
or may take form of
an overly simplistic
structure (such as a
pros-and-cons
summary).
Minimal synthesis. Compiles rather than
synthesizes.
Strong organization. Good organization. Some problems with
organization.
Poor organization. Minimal organization.
Clear and wellcrafted transitions.
Clear transitions. Some transitions are
unclear, or ill-fitting.
Most transitions are
unclear, or ill-fitting.
Weak or lacking
transitions
throughout.
Strong conclusion. Good conclusion. Some problems with
the conclusion (for
example, overly
abrupt, or not wellSignificant problems
with the conclusion.
Inadequate
conclusion.
ILR260 Final Research Project Instructions
9
aligned with the body
of the project).
Confidence in use of
Standard English,
language reflects a
practiced and/or
refined
understanding of
syntax and usage.
Conveys a good
understanding of
Standard English; the
writer is clear in
his/her attempt to
articulate main
points, but may
demonstrate
moments of “flat” or
unrefined language.
Presence of sentencelevel errors and
awkwardness of
expression, but not
of such frequency
and severity as to
significantly impede
understanding.
Awkward expression
and sentence-level
errors occur
frequently, often
impeding
understanding.
Awkward expression
and sentence-level
errors occur
throughout the
research project and
significantly impede
understanding.
Adheres to APA Style
(MLA for
arts/humanities
majors).
Adheres to APA Style
(MLA for
arts/humanities
majors); occasional
citation errors are
minor and at level of
presentation. The
errors would not
prevent a reader
from being able to
connect in-text and
references list, or
from being able to
independently track
down the references;
they would be
unlikely to detract
from the author’s
credibility.
Evidence of attempt
to adhere to APA
Style (MLA for
arts/humanities
majors), but with
some errors in
presentation and
content that might
detract from the
author’s credibility or
prevent readers from
being able to
understand or locate
sources.
Insufficient
adherence to APA
Style (MLA for
arts/humanities
majors);
significant/communi
cation-impeding
errors in
presentation and
content
Major deviations from
APA or MLA Style.