What the course covered

I learned a lot in this course about the social and ethical impacts of big data. We covered everything from predictive policing to facial recognition, to AI in classrooms, to AI in the medical field, to AI in the office, to AI in smart devices - pretty much across the board. We looked at how AI is being used in other countries, how it's taking over jobs like truck driving, what the future looks like as a society implementing AI at a monumental pace, and what kinds of rules and regulations we should have, if any, on the use of AI moving forward.

Privacy and security

A lot of the questions we asked were about privacy and security. Does AI compromise one's ability to stay private and secure? Has our generation already lost all sense of privacy? These topics were discussed in a discussion-based classroom, and it was incredibly interesting to hear the perspectives of my classmates, all of whom came from different backgrounds.

What I'm taking away from it

I learned a lot about how incredible this age of AI is, and truly how many fields it's impacting. Although it's scary to think of a world where AI is completely integrated, this class helped me learn a lot about how to protect my own privacy and others', the kinds of conversations we should be having with youth about being responsible with AI, and how to keep developing my critical thinking skills alongside AI instead of letting it do the thinking for me.

My final project: predictive policing

My final project discussed the topic of predictive policing. I read a lot of articles about the implications of using AI in policing, and my overall take was that it would not be beneficial to our society at this time. Data is biased, and using biased data only produces biased decisions - that was another one of my main takeaways from this course.

Where I landed

After this course, I truly feel more educated and open to discussion about the implications and real impacts of AI, without feeling scared or uneducated on the topic. Having this knowledge alongside how it actually affects people is invaluable.

Read my final op-ed: "Coded Prejudice: How Predictive Policing Turns Bias Into Law" (co-written with Younei Soe) →
View my final presentation slides →