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i am glad that my university asks questions about ethics and such in our research and development. kind of blows my mind that people could think of developing ai meant to be used with all people, in border control situations especially, and not raise the appropriate concerns.

i guess i'll just stay glad that my only hands-on experience with ai is my silly little video games.

@terrasalix I had been in various IT positions for over 20 years when I went for my CS degree. While I was glad to see ethics mentioned, it was a single unit within a single class. Kind of appalling how many of the traditional age students just couldn't see how the discussion applied to them. ("It's just an algorithm, how can it be biased?" )

@awfulhorrid admittedly i'm a bit surprised at the attitude of some of my fellow students. many seem to just want to pass their modules with the bare minimum possible and seem to have little interest or regard for any topics of discussion. ethics & privacy included, still surprisingly.

ethics is at least mentioned in most modules, though it is somewhat a passing concern in those cases. for my individual research, there is at least ethics forms that must be completed and checked by a supervisor.

@terrasalix I met quite a few students that were decent programmers, but had no passion for it. Anything they were learning, their first question was always "how can I use this to earn money?" (They all seriously resented having to take anything that wasn't a core CS class.)

When asked why they were studying CS if they weren't really interested in it, the answer was inevitably "I was told I could make a lot of money doing this." Burnout waiting to happen and no concern for professional ethics.

@awfulhorrid i was admittedly pushed to pursue cs rather than my other interests (by my parents, for money reasons), but i can at least say for myself that i'm not satisfied with work that isn't my best. which seems to be rare among many other students i've met. it's been surprising, as an international student. uk tuition is far cheaper than usa, but instead of taking advantage of that to really learn and do well, everyone feels like they're content just coasting to their degree.

@awfulhorrid ugh, getting paid to cuddle and do nothing else sounds great right about now...!

one day, i'll write a game. but until then, i will do uni work and take lots of naps.

also, i've just seen you're in northern illinois—i'm from there! grew up in the rockford area. :)