iPads, MakerEd and More in Education

"When new technologies become widespread, they often raise ethical questions. For example:

1. Weapons — who should be allowed own them?
2. Printing press — what should be allowed to be published?
3. Drones — where should they be allowed to go?

The answers to these questions normally come after the technologies have become common enough for issues to actually arise. As our technology becomes more powerful, the potential harms from new technologies will become larger. I believe we must shift from being reactive to being proactivewith respect to new technological dangers.

We need to start identifying the ethical issues and possible repercussions of our technologies before they arrive. Given that technology grows exponentially fast, we will have less and less time to consider the ethical implications."

The first industrial revolution, powered by steam, launched mass production. The second revolution added electricity to everything. The third added computing power. This new revolution, powered by artificial intelligence (AI), is adding cognitive capabilities to everything—and it’s a game changer.

Code that learns is both powerful and dangerous. It threatens the basic rules of markets and civic life. AI requires a new technical and civic infrastructure, a new way to conduct business, a new way to be together in community.

AI and enabling technologies like robotics and autonomous vehicles will change lives and livelihoods. Great benefits and unprecedented wealth will be created. But with that will come waves of disruption.

Compared to prior revolutions, this one is occurring at an exponential speed and while impacts are ubiquitous, control is concentrated. AI is a centralizing force. It plows through monster data sets in seconds aggregating benefits and wealth at an unprecedented speed.

It’s time to #AskAboutAI. It’s time for a civic conversation about the widespread implications about the new age we’re living in.

Cambridge, MA—MIT is in the midst of a $1-billion effort to reshape how it teaches computer science, in what some say may be a model for other colleges. But the effort has has also drawn protests by some students and professors, who are questioning how well ethics will be integrated into the effort and are criticizing the influence of a controversial donor.

Those mixed feelings were on display this week as the university hosted a three-day celebration of its planned College of Computing. The event included a back-flipping robot modeled on a cheetah and other marvels of digital engineering, as well as planned appearances by former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt. It also sparked protests by students and professors, including a “teach-in” questioning how well ethics will be integrated into the effort and criticizing the influence of a controversial donor.

Two big ideas drive MIT’s new college. First is that MIT needs far more computer-science professors to meet the demand by students and researchers. Second, coding is no longer a department to put off in a corner, but a toolset that can be applied to every academic discipline. And that means making sure everyone writing computer code also pays attention to the cultural and ethical implications of their tools, the effort’s leaders say.

“It’s turning computer science into a lingua franca,” said Sanjay Sarma, vice president for open learning at MIT, in an interview. “I think students will soon all learn English, Spanish and Python.”