Schedule and readings
This course will have weekly readings covering a variety of topics. These will be from the academic literature and from the popular press. Some also include short videos. Every week, there will also be a "from the news" reading, responding to very recent current events.
The full details of citations for the course readings are available on the course reading list, which is here.
Several of the articles in this course are not freely available due to paywalls. In the table below, you will find both direct links to the articles on the websites of their publishers, and (in many cases) links to licensed versions of the articles, which will often require you to log in with your UW credentials to either your account on UW Learn or the UW Library.
Please come to class prepared to discuss the week's readings. Most weeks there will also be a writing assignment, shown on the weekly assignments pane, for which students must write a 500-1000 word paper, due at 11:59 PM on the Monday night before our Tuesday lectures.
For example, before the first lecture, on Tuesday, January 9, please read the introductory material for week 1; at that class, we will give the prompt for that week's writing assignment, which is due on January 15.
# | Date | Topics | Readings | "From the News" reading | Third hour plan | Writing assignment |
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1 | 9 Jan | Introductions, case studies |
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2 | 16 Jan | Definitions of discrimination, case studies |
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3 | 23 Jan | Racial discrimination and criminal justice |
| ArsTechnica article: cameras in operating rooms? | Rebecca Hutchinson, from the Library; subject is identifying good information in research | Assignment 3, due 29 Jan |
4 | 30 Jan | Indigenous people and technology |
| Harvard Magazine article on authoritarian regimes and AI technology | None this week | Assignment 4, due 5 Feb |
5 | 6 Feb | Gender discrimination and violence against women | AI interfaces for paralyzed people, and what happens when they're made obsolete | Course Instructors; subject is editing your own writing | No assignment this week. Project milestone #1 due 16 February | |
6 | 13 Feb | Discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity; deepfakes and porn |
| Vox Future Perfect article on open-source AI models | Project proposal finalization with TAs | Assignment 5, due 26 Feb |
Reading week Feb 20 | ||||||
7 | 27 Feb | Discrimination against disabled people |
| Law and LLMS: ArsTechnica article about California lawsuit with OpenAI, CBC article about bad Air Canada chatbot advice | no third hour this week | Assignment 6, due 4 Mar |
8 | 5 Mar | Privacy and the right to be forgotten |
| CBC article about cameras in vending machines at Waterloo; River Stanley to visit both sections | Group project milestone work with TAs | No assignment this week. Project milestone #2 due on 15 March. |
9 | 12 Mar | Global issues, including government surveillance |
| 2 papers about LLM misuse: #1, #2. (You may need to use your UW credentials to access #2, as Nature is behind a paywall.) | Group project milestone work with TAs | Assignment 7, due 18 Mar |
10 | 19 Mar | Fixes: inclusivity in education and tech |
| McKinsey article about generative AI and job loss, Washington Post article about the McKinsey study that focuses on gendered nature of projected job loss (see course Slack for link to .pdf) | Group project milestone work with TAs | Assignment 8, due 25 Mar |
11 | 26 Mar | Fixes: law, regulation, and other approaches |
There a lot of these approaches. Pick some of them, and read
all articles in those groups. We'll cover both case studies.
| None this week | Group project final deliverable work with TAs | Assignment 9, due 1 Apr |
12 | 2 Apr | Wrap up and student projects | N/A | TBD | None | Possibly no assignment this week. Final project milestone due 8 April. |