Societal Impact of Computer Systems

Automation and Employment

The development of AI has led to increasingly more tasks being automated, leading many people to worry that automation could replace millions of jobs in the future. What are our moral duties towards the people who might lose their job as a result of automation? Should we design for a future in which most people don't work and receive a universal basic income? Or are we wrong to fear the destruction of jobs by AI because AI might create new jobs?

• Capital, Labour, and Power in the Age of Automation, Oxford talk by Carl Benedikt Frey
• Futuremakers discussion on automation of jobs, with Mike Osborne, Judy Stephenson, and David Clifton, chaired by Peter Millican

News and Propaganda

Digital technology has changed the way we read news. Most people read their news online now, as opposed to on paper. And a significant proportion of people get their news from social media platforms. Those two changes, amongst others, enable malicious actors to use AI to manipulate information in ways that are detrimental to democracy. How can we make sure that people get information from reliable sources? How do we deal with propaganda online?

• Computational propaganda, Oxford talk by Vidya Narayanan
• AI and the News, Oxford talk by Rasmus Kleis Nielsen
• Futuremakers discussion on finding the truth, with Rasmus Nielsen, Vidya Narayanan, and Mimie Liotsiou, chaired by Peter Millican

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