The University of Michigan’s
brand new Center for Ethics,
Society
and
Computing
opened in January with the
goal of addressing inequality
produced by digital media and
computing technology. With
the prevalence of computing
technology across almost every
professional field and modern,
everyday life, the potential for
inequity and exclusion exists
across many disciplines. The
center aims to use University
resources to better understand
this and educate people.
ESC
Director
Christian
Sandvig,
associate
communications
professor,
highlighted
the
need
for
organizations
like
ESC,
especially given how rapidly the
use of computing has grown.
“Generally speaking, there’s
a moment at which we as a
society are reflecting about
advances
in
computing,”
Sandvig said. “Computers are
doing these things that they
never before did, and they’re
definitely good at things we
didn’t think they would be
good at, but they’re often being
rushed into situations where
there hasn’t been necessarily
a lot of thought about some
of the implications or the
consequences, and sometimes
the designs are rushed.”
Recently, interest in ethical
computing has been on the rise
as algorithms are implemented
in everything from deciding
bail rates in our justice system
to credit scores and social
media feeds. Sandvig discussed
the breadth of this new center,
emphasizing that prior to its
launch the University had no
centralized
resource
issues
related to this new and evolving
field or students interested in it.
“If you were interested in, for
example, the ethics of working
for different companies in the
tech industry or interested in
issues of justice and fairness and
computing or mass surveillance,
it wasn’t really clear where
the community was, so our job
we think is to answer that,”
Sandvig said. “We have faculty
from art, we have faculty from
architecture,
music,
LSA,
information, public health, it’s
a pretty broad group of people
and they’re all interested in
these problems of computers in
society.”
The center aims to be a
research
hub
focused
on
understanding
computing
inequalities.
For
example,
Sandvig brought up a past
research project in which he
and a group of students tried
to determine why a Facebook
algorithm provided the option
of a gay pride flag emoji reaction
to only some users during June
of 2017.
“It’s pretty interesting that
Facebook thinks that it should
be,
probably
algorithmically,
profiling
your
support
for
homosexuality,” Sandvig said.
“We tried to reverse engineer
how Facebook was deciding
where to deploy the gay pride
emoji.”
Sandvig said the University
provided
ESC
with
an
opportunity to address these
issues with multidisciplinary
efforts and fill this unique gap.
“Michigan
is
really
remarkable in that it has a really
large group of faculty that are
experts in areas relating to
computers, but also to justice, or
fairness, or ethics or morality,”
Sandvig said. “The idea was,
what if we are able to showcase
our University’s strength in
this area by organizing all of
the professor’s together and
to try and form a community
around the students that are
interested in this area.”
Art
&
Design
assistant
professor Sophia Brueckner,
former
Google
software
engineer, does research with
ESC that focuses on people’s
perspectives
regarding
the
role of technology in the
future, both good and bad. She
does this partly by analyzing
and studying science fiction,
using a variety of mediums to
showcase her findings.
“Often I find myself thinking
about what visions of the future
are
industry
offering
us?”
Brueckner said. “Everything
right now seems to be free
but really we’re paying for it
with our attention and our
data, and that’s what’s shaping
the trajectory of a lot of these
technologies,
in
particular
wearable
technologies
and
most internet technologies. If
we weren’t constrained by that
what might be a person’s vision
for how they might live with
technology or incorporate it in
their body be?”
2 — Friday, February 21, 2020
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
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B E HIND THE STORY
Every Friday, one Daily staffer will give a behind-the-scenes look
at one of this week’s stories. This week, LSA sophomore Callie
Teitelbaum on her story “Students protest Paul, Weiss recruiting
event in support of #DropExxon”:
“When I was assigned the story I immediately started researching
Paul, Weiss’ relationship with Exxon and reading about different
lawsuits Paul Weiss defended Exxon in. I interviewed a participant
and organizer of the protest prior to the event to understand why law
students around the country are taking a risk in boycotting one of the
most competitive law firms. I also wanted to understand why this
battle against Exxon is one law students are particularly passionate
about. After witnessing the protest, I combined my research of past
Exxon controversy with the message from law students to Paul Weiss
to paint a picture of why this national movement is occurring at other
law schools, and why law students are using this time to take a stand….
The most interesting part of the story is how law students are using
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change. The extent to which Exxon’s historical role in climate change
is causing law students to question the ethics of different law firms is
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ANNIE KLUSENDORF/Daily
QUOTE OF THE WE E K
“
This action will waste more than $275,000 of taxpayer
money and, as the Council majority admits, is entirely without
cause. Mr. Lazarus has done nothing wrong. This is a political
termination that is bad for Ann Arbor.”
Mayor Christopher Taylor on City Council’s 7-4 vote to fire City Administrator Howard Lazarus without
cause at the City Council meeting on Tuesday night
New Center for Ethics, Society and
Computing to study inequity in tech
Launch hopes to centralize resources related to evolving field of ethical computation on
issues such as algorithms deciding bail rates to concerns related to mass surveillance
HANNAH MACKAY
Daily Staff Reporter
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BERNIE
From Page 1
Rabhi said Sanders’ health
care policies would lead to more
comprehensive
coverage
for
Americans.
“Too many Americans have
died because they do not have
healthcare or they lack adequate
access to healthcare,” Rabbi said.
“How many more will we allow
to die? Not a single one under a
Bernie presidency.”
Rabhi closed by commenting
on
his
own
experiences
in
government and said he trusts
Sanders’ judgment to do the right
thing.
“One of the things that I
like about this campaign is as
someone who has been in the
hot seat, somebody who has seen
in the bullpen how things work
in politics, I can tell you that
just about every day I am truly
disgusted that our American
political system has become what
it has,” Rabhi said. “They say that
money influences policy… but I
have seen it firsthand. And what
I like about Bernie Sanders and
this campaign, is that there is no
monied interest, no corporation
that he puts first.”
Medical
School
student
Solomon
Rajput,
who
is
challenging U.S. Rep. Debbie
Dingell, D-Mich, spoke to The
Daily about his excitement for
Sanders’ campaign.
“I am so excited to support
and endorse Bernie Sanders for
president of the United States.
He’s the man with a vision,”
Rajput said. “He knows what
we need to get done to improve
the lives of the regular people in
America and we’re going to stick it
to the rich.”
LSA freshman Porter Hughes,
a member of Students for Bernie
at the University of Michigan, said
he hopes to see the office as the
beginning of a surge of support for
Sanders in the coming months.
“This field office is just one piece
of the giant grassroots network
that Bernie Sanders is building
to help start a movement to not
only get him elected President but
change the politics that are in our
country,” Hughes said. “There are
so many issues that people are
passionate about, and they are
ready to make a change. Bernie
is that change.”