Great Decisions

You are a slave to your own ignorance. Freedom is earned through education.
– Karen North 1985

2020: A new world of online education – The Computer Science Teachers Education Association in their survey asked: What suggestions would you give to policymakers to improve conditions for computer science teachers?  Since I am the discussion leader for the chapter on AI, adding my suggestions here:

  • (1) Make CS an academic area and require one course for graduation.
  • (2) Require community service as part of graduation giving our CS students opportunities to use their skills to help solve local problems. Aspirations.org and Technovation Challenge young women already do this.  Provide time and pay for teachers for this outreach as those who are passionate already do.
  • (3) Tax all Technology companies 0.1% of their profits to pay for the salaries of those who teach CS.  And that includes K-16 classroom teachers who integrate CS into their coursework. A one size fits all teaching credentials and pay scale is not working.  Why would businesses want to do this?  See the AI recommendations to policy makers below.
  • (4) Reduce reliance on Carnegie Units. Allow students to get credit for CS by taking the content online, but requiring application in their field of study.  And that could span 4 years of high school and study of multiple languages.  And even begin in elementary school if they had a mentor to expand on their interest.
  • Share expertise in helping to solve the AI dilemma, as it is the CS teachers who understand AI, unlike policymakers. For CS teachers to give suggestions to improve conditions they need to get involved in the politics of education.

(8) America’s uneven approach to AI and Its Consequences

Artificial intelligence (AI) refers to the simulation of human intelligence in machines that are programmed to think like humans and mimic their actions. The term may also be applied to any machine that exhibits traits associated with a human mind such as learning and problem-solving

Of the 8 topics discussed this year, AI was the only one that shared findings and recommendations:

  • (1) By combining and analyzing big datasets, policymakers could make economics more efficient and government more effective.
  • (2) U.S. should limit restrictions on AI research collaboration only to those areas that pose an identified threat to national security.
  • (3) US should demand greater transparency from the companies that provide us with AI regarding how they use data, when they use AI and provide AI services to consumers, and how they invest in AI.
  • (4) The U.S. should work with international organizations such as the World Bank, ITU, UNC-TAD, the OECD and others to encourage states to develop plans for the regulations and exchange of different types of data. The U.S. is building walls rather than bridges.  To take down those bridges requires education, not just with our children, but internationally.

Discussion Questions:

  1. If the U.S. closes itself off from the world – is it stronger and safer or weaker and more prone to hacking?
  2. Will the advance of AI have as profound an effect on the economy as the computer revolution?
  3. AI is more abut BIG DATA.  It is a stretch to expect a global agreement on Ethics and AI? What might a unified data protection law include? What exactly needs to be regulated and how?
  4. What is the level of privacy an individual can expect living in a modern society? Is privacy, as a concept, going to become alien in the future?
  5. If AI is a “global public good” than what are it’s associated negative “externalities?” (Such as the weakening of democracy, the rise of populism and the loss of privacy.)
  6. Should the U.S. hold big data companies accountable for spreading users personal information? (Similar to how the EU has gone after Facebook and Google.) Would that have a negative effect on the growth of AI?

(5) Northern Triangle

(4) Human Trafficking

2019: my first year, wish I had started before

This is data analysis. I decided to join an AAUW Great Decisions group. Why:

  • friends asked me
  • was something my husband and I could do together
  • I was curious about an activity I kept hearing about

What I have learned so far is that I do not know much about world issues. Yet, I am voting on politicians who “say” they do. One of the topics is on populism in Europe.  I was looking for a simple explanation and found it: