Illuminating the Black Mirror: Humanizing Ethics Within Artificial Intelligence

• In Event: Humanizing Computer Science Education: Addressing Critical Issues for K–12 Teaching and Learning

Abstract

Over the past two decades, innovations powered by machine learning have extended into nearly all facets of human life. From at-home “smart” technologies for security and comfort; to mobile devices and facial recognition tools that track movements and behaviors; to algorithms that determine social media consumption and marketplace identities, artificial intelligence (AI) has become ubiquitous for most of us who are “connected” through various digital networks. Just to participate in daily practices, we consent to corporate terms and conditions through absentminded clicks of “I agree,” hardly registering the ethical decisions or implications of the permissions we grant and data we share with every act of consent.

Our conceptual approach integrates computational thinking with critical literacy, through a framework of Critical Computational Literacy (CCL) (Lee & Garcia, 2014; Lee & Soep, 2016) that attaches technology learning to social justice. CCL attends to the dynamics of “civic imagination” (Soep, Lee, Van Wart, Parikh, 2020) as a driver of learning. Civic Imagination is based on the idea that social change begins through a process of collective imagining enabled by digital tools and new forms of cultural participation they make possible (Jenkins, Shresthova & Peters-Lazaro, 2020).

Our research combining quantitative data with ethnographic methods suggests that while young people sense they can’t “trust” AI, many are not sure how it works or how much control they have over its growing role in their lives. At YR Media, a national network of youth journalists and artists, we create content on multiple platforms in numerous media. Students who are a part of YRI, a department within YR Media, are predominantly youth of color and those who contend with economic and other barriers to full participation in STEM fields. In YRI, they create interactive stories combining journalism, design, data, and code. The model for computer science (CS) education we have developed embeds computational thinking and action inside a youth-driven newsroom where content is tethered to truth and aimed towards justice (Lee & Soep, 2018).

The qualitative dimensions of our research draw from participant observations and interviews as well as analysis of learning artifacts and media products. Our study focuses on groups of youth ages 14-24 enrolled in YRI. In initial stages, we facilitate hands-on learning activities that reveal ways in which our devices are constantly mining and monetizing our information. Through ongoing observation and analysis, we see students deepen curiosity about and understanding of AI that allows them to exercise agency and conceptualize creative projects using their new knowledge to manipulate and “hack” AI-dependent algorithms. By employing culturally sustaining pedagogies of teaching AI and CS to youth, our students are encouraged and driven to bring forth ethical critiques through their projects. Through conceptualizing, creating and distributing their finished products, young people surface the ethical dilemmas of AI when given opportunities to play, inquire, critique, create, question and express themselves artistically and through computation. Creativity and artistic agency allow youth to encounter and challenge core tensions and produce nuanced projects that spark further conversation amongst the makers and their audiences.

Authors

• Clifford H. Lee, Mills College

• Lissa Soep, YR Media (Formerly Youth Radio)

• Nimah Gobir