Skip to Main Content

Lesson 6

We will continue to look into the questions: Should our society allow AI to influence human decision-making or make decisions on its own? Why or why not? We will delineate and evaluate a counterargument to the “Machine Bias” article. We will then begin our study of the third subtopic prompt: Is it possible to protect an individual’s privacy with the rise of artificial intelligence? Why or why not? We will do this by reading the study “Big Data: Seizing Opportunities, Preserving Values.”

Lesson Goals

  • Can I delineate and evaluate a counterargument to “Machine Bias”?

Texts

Core

  • Unit Reader
    • Excerpt from “Big Data: Seizing Opportunities, Preserving Values,” United States Executive Office of the President, Public Domain, 2014
    • “Machine Bias,” Julia Angwin, Jeff Larson, Surya Mattu, and Lauren Kirchner, ProPublica Inc., 2016

Optional

  • Digital Access
    • “Are Criminal Risk Assessment Scores Racist?,” Jennifer L Doleac and Megan Stevenson, Brookings Institute, 2016
    • “COMPAS Risk Scales: Demonstrating Accuracy, Equity and Predictive Parity,” William Dieterich, Christina Mendoza, and Tim Brennan, Northpointe Inc. Research Department, 2016
    • “Ethics for Powerful Algorithms,” Abe Gong, Open Data Science, 2017
    • “False Positives, False Negatives, and False Analyses,” Anthony W. Flores, Kristen Bechtel, and Christopher Lowenkamp, Federal Probation Journal, 2016
    • “ProPublica Is Wrong in Charging Racial Bias in an Algorithm,” Chuck Dinerstein, American Council on Science and Health, 2018

Materials

Tools

Question Sets

Editable Google Docs

Activity 1: Read – Discuss – Write

In partners, we will summarize and discuss the articles we read for homework.

With your partner, use the guiding questions from Lesson 5, Activity 4 to summarize your article. Explain how it counters or responds to "Machine Bias."

Activity 2: Read – Discuss – Write

With partners, we will delineate and evaluate the articles we read for homework.

Step 1

With your partner, delineate the article, using the Delineating Arguments Tool. For longer articles, focus on the overall position and major claims presented.

Step 2

After delineating the article, discuss the elements you have identified and evaluate the argument using an Evaluating Arguments Tool.

Step 3

After discussing, delineating, and evaluating the article, consider the following questions:

  1. How does the word choice in the article suggest the author’s perspective, position, and central claim?

  2. What evidence does this article use to counter "Machine Bias"?

  3. What is the most convincing evidence? Why?

Look at your Attending to Details Tool for "Machine Bias," as well as your Delineating Arguments Tool and Evaluating Arguments Tool for the article you just read.

  1. Which argumentative position and supporting claims do you find most convincing? Why?

Activity 3: Discuss

We will discuss the five articles and their arguments as a class.

As a class, review the five counterarguments examined in pairs. Share your thoughts regarding the counterargument you read and the questions you discussed with your partner.

  1. How does the word choice in the article suggest the author’s perspective, position, and central claim?

  2. What evidence does this article use to counter “Machine Bias”?

  3. What is the most convincing evidence? Why?

  4. Which argumentative position and supporting claims do you find most convincing? Why?

Activity 4: Discuss – Write

We will return to the subtopic questions and prompt to consider evidence we might use as a subtopic argument.

Your teacher will lead a discussion about the subtopic questions: Should our society allow artificial intelligence to make its own decisions or influence human decision-making? Why or why not?

Discuss the following guiding questions:

  1. What information from the articles you read about machine learning might help you respond to the subtopic questions?

Take notes on any new information that is shared in your Learning Log.

Activity 5: Discuss – Write

We will prepare for further research into each area of concern by unpacking the final subtopic questions.

Your teacher will lead a discussion that unpacks the third subtopic question from the Culminating Task Checklist: Is it possible to protect an individual’s privacy with the rise of artificial intelligence? Why or why not?

  1. What form of writing does this prompt require?

  2. Who or what is the focus of the prompt?

  3. What is the prompt asking you to do?

  4. What information do you need to complete the task?

Activity 6: Read – Discuss – Write

We will skim the excerpt from the white House report “Big Data: Seizing Opportunities, Preserving Values.”

Skim the excerpt from the White House report "Big Data: Seizing Opportunities, Preserving Values." Look at headings, subheadings, and bold print.

  1. What are the main claims and topics that will be discussed in this study?

As a class, read the text in the blue boxes from Part 1: Big Data and the Individual:

  • What is a Zettabyte?

  • The “Internet of Things”

  • The Scope of This Review

  • What are the Sources of Big Data?

In the Scope of this Review, the report states its purpose. Using information from that section, respond to the following question:

  1. Why did President Obama want this review of big data?

Activity 7: Read – Write

For homework, read the excerpt from the white House report, “Big Data: Seizing Opportunities, Preserving Values” for homework.

For homework, read the excerpt from the White House report "Big Data: Seizing Opportunities, Preserving Values." During a future lesson, you will participate in a Socratic Seminar. In order to prepare for the seminar, annotate and take notes in your Learning Log while reading the text.

Consider the following guiding questions:

  1. What are the pros and cons of perfect personalization?

  2. Why is the persistence of data concerning?

  3. While reading Section V: Toward a Policy Framework for Big Data, underline reasons and evidence for why the authors have stated that four areas concerning big data—the citizen, the consumer, discrimination, and privacy—emerge as places for further policy exploration.

Write new or interesting words you encounter in your Vocabulary Journal.