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This list is also a bit incomplete, or more likely just refers to classes taught in the current school year. I co-teach a different ethics-focused class in the Stanford CS department (CS 181, which in this incarnation started in 2017). I think it's a pretty good class too, although as you suggest, there are limits on how much a quarter-long class can realistically accomplish. (We try to push the envelope with our project -- some of our students have protested outside Apple HQ or Robinhood, given presentations to the Palo Alto School Board, interviewed farmworkers and U.S. congresspeople about automation, handed out leaflets about net neutrality to tourists, etc.) The reading list and goals, etc., are up at https://cs181.stanford.edu. In addition to the new "embedded EthiCS" program you mentioned, the CS program also offers a bunch of more focused classes on, e.g., trust and safety engineering (CS 152); law, order, and algorithms (CS 209); race and gender in Silicon Valley (CS 80Q), fair, accountable, and transparent deep learning (CS 335); computational social choice (CS 366); digital technology and law (CS 481); the Modern Internet (upcoming). And, of course, a much bigger range of classes about engineering, ethics, and public policy offered by colleagues across the university. The truth, though, is that neither CS 181 or 182 is required per se. All Stanford undergrads have to take at least one course in ethics, and all undergrads in the School of Engineering have to take at least one course in Technology in Society, and both CS 181 and 182 fulfill both of those requirements. But many of our students do fulfill them by taking other classes. |
Honestly the ethical questions being brought up are some of the most interesting things happening in tech right now. Society & the human API is like the next abstraction layer for tech, and the dust has hardly settled. It's really created a lot of opportunities to ask ourselves what kind of society we want to live in. Your CS181 syllabus looks great!