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Week 9: Emerging Issues

1 min read (199 words)
#privacy  #surveillance  #generative AI 

Week 9: Emerging Issues#

Focus: Privacy, surveillance, generative AI

📚 Required Readings#

Primary Readings#

  1. “Privacy in the Age of AI” (25 min)

    • Data collection and personal privacy
    • Differential privacy and technical solutions
    • Right to privacy in different jurisdictions

  2. “Surveillance Capitalism” — Chapter selections (25 min)

    • Business models based on data extraction
    • Power asymmetries between individuals and platforms
    • Societal implications

  3. “Generative AI: Opportunities and Risks” (25 min)

    • How large language models work
    • Applications and capabilities
    • Concerns: bias, misinformation, environmental costs, training data ethics

Supplementary Resources#

  • Facial recognition and mass surveillance — Current articles
  • Copyright and AI training data — Legal perspectives
  • “The Environmental Costs of AI” — Brief overview

💭 Discussion Prompts#

  1. Is privacy still possible in a world of ubiquitous data collection?
  2. What responsibility do generative AI creators have for training data and outputs?
  3. How should we balance innovation in AI with protection of fundamental rights?

📝 Preparation for Class#

  • Reflect on your own digital privacy: What data about you exists? Who has access?
  • Try a generative AI tool (ChatGPT, Claude, etc.): What can it do? What are its limitations?
  • Research one recent AI privacy or surveillance controversy

🔗 Related Assignment#

See Week 9 Assignment for this week’s task.