AI and Robotics: A blessing or a curse?

Artificial Intelligence and robotics have an increasing impact on our society and our well-being. Many new opportunities are under development, such as care robots, autonomous vehicles and military purposes.

However, these new technologies pose many ethical concerns, decision dilemmas and policy challenges. These include aspects like privacy, surveillance, transparency, accountability, human control and the related design requirements. It is equally unclear what the implications for governance and regulation may be.

In this course, you will learn to consider ethics as an essential element in the developmental process. With the frameworks offered, you will be able to reflect on a diverse range of ethical issues related to AI, e.g., how to make sure that that AI is trustworthy and meets societal needs. We will also discuss the design principles that developers can deploy to ensure the responsible design and use of AI.

The course includes a large number of case studies which involve the dilemmas, risks and unintended and unexpected consequences of AI and robotics. These case studies range from the care robots that respond to human emotions, the use of AI for recruitment of staff, the use of voice assistants at home through to the use of autonomous weapons.

This course will provide you with a comprehensive range of learning resources on this important topic, including interviews with leading experts in this field. This course is a spin-off from "The Mind of the Universe" a documentary series created by the Dutch broadcasting company VPRO and professor Robbert Dijkgraaf of Princeton University.