Vanier College
McGill University
HEC Montréal
This project seeks to develop and validate a bilingual AI competency framework using machine learning algorithms to analyse job postings by AI sector companies in Montréal and programs of study offered by local educational institutions. The project aims to identify and map new skills and competencies required by industry, and to develop a prospective pilot curriculum in a sample of college courses. Data transfer transparency and precision respecting competencies identified will make it possible to abbreviate the bridging of training/occupation competency gaps triggered by the ever evolving requisites of new AI-based industries.
The first objective of the project is to develop a dynamic AI competency framework, to identify and map skills and competencies required by the industry.
This is carried out by:
The analyzed data and competency ontology will be presented in the form of an interactive website.
The website is expected to operational by the end of June 2022. Please check back for updates.
The second objective of this project is to adapt existing educational curricula in order to reflect the ubiquity of AI technology in different branches of society and foster digital citizenship. More specifically, it aims to:
Until recently, only humans have been able to make decisions and carry them out. Yet, since the digital revolution, it has become possible to delegate decision-making processes and adjacent tasks to the artificial intelligence of machines. As a result, long-standing assumptions and values are increasingly called into question.
In this course, we will explore whether we should be worried that algorithms progressively decide and act upon our lives by examining a variety of potential issues that arise from our growing reliance on AI, autonomous systems and robots. However, before we can do so, we must familiarize ourselves more generally with the nature of computer ethics, the two ethical theories known as Utilitarianism and Kant’s Moral Theory, and the basic values of Western democracies. In addition, we will touch on the hallmarks of technological change, and try to figure out whether we have reason to fear that artificial intelligence might one day subjugate humans and take over the world.
The most important objective of this course thus consists of learning how to assess the increasing presence of AI in a realistic and informed manner. We want to be able to focus our energies on actual rather than imagined problems and effectively protect our democratic societies and human rights from potential threats while, at the same time, remaining open to the many opportunities and benefits artificial intelligence provides.
While this course focuses on some general ethical issues, in the second half of the course we look at questions around the obligations of scientists and inventors when they invent something. This then leads into a discussion about ethical issues around the development of AI. We start by looking at examples of the development of the atomic bomb and genetic modification. We look at both the intentions of these inventions and the impacts they might have on society and humanity as a whole. This leads us into a discussion about the different responsibilities held by scientists, the government, and society in the invention, implementation, and use of new technology. From this discussion we then move on to topics in AI. We explore the idea of Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics, and the possibility of creating some kind of ethical code that could be programmed into an AI system. Finally, we look at the question of AI rights. Using an episode of Star Trek, and looking at Sophia the robot developed by Hanson robotics, we try to define what characteristics are central to a concept of personhood, and how this might impact our development of AI personalities.
For centuries, writers have been fascinated by the image of the automaton – an artificial creature that looks human but isn’t. Over the 20th century, as real-life technology improved, the automaton became the robot, and other complex thinking machines, and eventually writers began exploring the possibilities of combining human bodies and brains with machines in order to create something entirely different. For a very long time, these stories might have been read as mere fantasy. Now, they read as prophecy. As our lives become more surrounded by, intertwined with, and dependent on robotics and artificial intelligence, what once seemed outlandish now seems inevitable, and we are forced to ask ourselves some questions: what forms will our artificial intelligences ultimately take? How far will they develop? What aspects of our lives will they affect? If we can indeed create a machine that thinks as we do, what differentiates us from something artificially created? What ethical, philosophical, and practical problems will the continued development of artificial intelligence present? And perhaps most important of all, what effect does such a close relationship with robots and artificial intelligences have on human nature itself? Through close readings of literary texts, we will explore ways in which writers, some excited, some concerned, some terrified, have tried to prepare us for what lies ahead.
A third objective of this project is to obtain a better understanding of emerging positions in the sector requiring expertise in ethical aspects of AI and data processing, and how these new competencies could be acquired in courses in post-secondary education.
There has been an unprecedented level of interest and investment in autonomous intelligent systems (AIS), such as artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics. The accelerated development and deployment of AIS, however, brought with it a myriad of social, ethical, and legal problems across the globe. As such, content from the young fields of robot ethics and AI ethics not only have much to offer to complement the technical training engineering students receive, but also are of growing interest to students interested in AIS such as those enrolled in a minor in AI.
In this course, students will learn the fundamental concepts such as human values and ethics, and build on these concepts to explore ethics issues pertaining to AIS through a series of real-world case studies. At the end of the course, students should be able to articulate ethics issues pertaining to AIS, identify stakeholders of an AIS, and what different design and technical approaches exist to help to consider values in the design of an AIS.