Homework 8: Finale
Due by 11:59pm on Wednesday, August 9
Required Questions
This homework is worth 2 points.
Surveys (1 pt)
For 1 point, complete the following three surveys:
- Complete the 61A end-of-semester survey,
- Fill out the UC Berkeley course evaluations, and
- Vote on your favorite Scheme art.
Written Assignment (1 pt)
For 1 point, complete and submit the following written assignment on Gradescope. The Gradescope assignment can be found here.
Find an article and write a response between 150 and 300 words that addresses one subfield of the social or ethical implications of technology. Some examples of topics that could be written about include, but are not limited to:
- Bioethics: The 5 Most Pressing Ethical Issues in Biotech Medicine - PMC
- Ethical implications of Chat GPT: Ethical Implications Of ChatGPT: Social/Legal Pay-Off // Unstop (formerly Dare2Compete)
- Biases in computer vision: How computer vision works -- and why it's plagued by bias | VentureBeat (do not use these linked articles as they are provided as examples, please find your own article)
Your response will be graded based on the following rubric:
| ----- | Full Credit | No Credit |
|---|---|---|
| Word count | 150-300 words | <150 words; >300 words |
| A cited scholarly article | The article cited with APA or MLA citation | No article cited; article just linked, not MLA or APA |
| Addresses a recent technology related to the field of computer science or data science | Technology is related to something discussed in CS61A, some fields of computer science, data science, electrical engineering, etc. | Technology is unrelated to any type of computer science; Technology is pseudoscientific or science fiction; Uses example article listed on this assignment above |
| Addresses some social or ethical implications | Summary, anecdote, or unique insight on some social or ethical implication or consequence as a result of the technology mentioned in the article; An example of how to prevent or improve the consequences of this technology going forward. | No social or ethical implications are mentioned; No unique insight on social implications |
From the article, How computer vision works - and why it’s plagued by Bias, Sage Lazzaro addresses what computer vision is, including how it originates from a form of artificial intelligence and machine learning. These AI systems come from feeding a neural network tons of data, which it then learns to make conclusions based on. This technology has been around since the 1950s, but with recent advancements in technology, especially since the year 2010, it has become more prevalent and less manually reviewed. This has led to lots of bias in computer vision, similar to the common phrase “garbage in, garbage out” amongst data scientists, because no one considered who was picking images to pass in and which images were chosen or why. Facial recognition technology in particular is known to misidentify Black people, despite it’s surging use in retail stores. This shows how we need to be more careful and considerate of how we use technology we produce, as it has real life consequences and implications that may affect users more than the developer. When creating new forms of artificial intelligence, developers should be cognizant of who labels images past in and build diversity amongst the developers.
Citations:
Lazzaro, S. (2021, August 11). How computer vision works - and why it’s plagued by Bias. VentureBeat. https://venturebeat.com/ai/how-computer-vision-works-and-why-its-plagued-by-bias/
This article talks about computer vision. Computer vision is a computer science tool and technology born from machine learning which is a form of artificial intelligence. It uses tons of data, like images, passed in to learn how to label other data. One early form of computer vision was the ImageNet, released in 2010; it was one of the first strongest forms of computer vision. From the article, “Facial recognition technology, for example, is known to misidentify Black people, but its use is surging in retail stores. It’s also already common in policing, which has prompted protests and regulations in several U.S. cities and states.” So we have to be careful how we use AI.
As a reminder, homework 8 is worth 2 points in total. One point max will be awarded for this written response, no partial credit will be awarded if not all full credit items are met.
We expect this assignment to take about 15-45 minutes. You may NOT work with a partner on this assignment. Please keep in mind our academic integrity policies outlined on the syllabus (including “Do not use AI assistants such as chatGPT, OpenAI codex, Github Copilot, etc.”).
Extra Credit (1 pt)
All students who receive full credit on this homework are eligible to receive 1 additional extra credit point if at least 80% of the course gets full credit on this homework (submits all surveys and completes the written response).