For my last talk of the year, I was once again honored to be invited to one of the classrooms of the ASU Prep Poly STEM High School. These ASU Prep high school students have been hearing lectures from faculty in the College of Integrative Sciences and Arts all semester about a wide array of topics. I updated my 2022 lecture because Oh Wow A Lot Happened This Year in AI. The lecture is now called “AI Ethics: Machines Make Potentially Helpful But Often Questionable Decisions, Given the Criteria You Choose and the Data They are Trained On.” (It’s even longer than last year’s title.)
The students and I had a blast discussing AI ethics. Students were outraged by the previous existence of and possible ongoing nature of AI mortgage redlining. Students thought that Amazon’s lacrosse-player-weighting algorithm was bogus. (So does Amazon, thankfully.) We also discussed how to use megaprompts ethically and effectively: the more of your own work you put in, the more of your own ideas you get out (even if the algorithm is generating the syntax).
I had a great time, and I am deeply grateful to the fine folks at ASU Prep Poly Experience for letting me talk once again. I hope to continue to reprise this talk annually!