Final Exam T-709-AIES-2024

The final exam will be a 3-hour open-book on-line exam (Canvas).

Questions will focus on your understanding of the material that has been presented and discussed throughout the course and that which can be found in the assigned readings and lecture notes, with heavy emphasis on the main concepts and topics, and your ability to holistically comprehend these.

(You should know by now (due to your assigned reading About Understanding by yours truly), an agent's (including students') understanding of a phenomenon can be tested by asking them to (a) predict something about the phenomenon, (b) achieving some sort of goal with respect to the phenomenon, ( c) explain something about the phenomenon, and/or (d) recreate the phenomenon.)

If you are unsure of which topics are the main ones, and which are less important secondary topics, can look at the lecture notes: If something is mentioned there, it is important. If it's mentioned more than once it's even more important. But above all, it is your comprehension (read: understanding) of the relationships between the topics covered in the class, and your ability to put this understanding in context with creating more capable AI systems, that the final exam focuses on.

Below are some example questions formulated in a similar way to (some of) the questions that (may) apprear on the final exam. Note that these are representative of the types of questions, not an exhaustive list. These are provided here to help you prepare for the final exam, refresh yourself on the topics and readings covered, and give you an idea of the scope.

However you answer and whatever you write on the final exam, keep this in mind: Make sure you present strong and clear arguments for your answer, referring back to the most relevant material covered in the course, as appropriate.

1. What are the main characteristics of disruptive technologies and how do they influence how ethical issues emerge?
2. To what extent does applied research affect progress of AI? Is this different for basic research?
3. Is AI inherently unethical? If so, why? If not, why not?
4. You are asked to design an application for mobile phones that provides information about wheelchair access in the city of Reykjavik, based on travels of wheelchair-bound individuals. Describe three major ethical challenges that may arise in such a project and what you might do to address them.
5. AI companions are social chatbots that provide emotional support and engage users in private conversations. They often collect a lot of private data and are programmed in such a way that may lead to unrealistic emotional attachments. Discuss the ethical issues with deploying such technologies on the Internet. Do you think they should be banned? If yes, why? If not, how can they be regulated to meet reasonable ethical principles?

2024©K.R.Thórisson