Week 16 · Theme 3 Digital Citizenship, Lesson 1 Explorer in Action · 3 lessons
3
Is the reply fair? Write an ethical answer
ICT P6 Term 2, Theme 3: pp. 8–13
GoalJudge an AI reply for ethics, equality, justice and effect on people, and write a better one.
New words
ethics · ideas about what is morally right and wrongequality · treating people so that every person has the same chancejustice · being fair and honest in how people are treatedreply · the answer an AI gives to a question
Explanation
Now practise creating an ethical AI response, on paper. No talking to a voice bot is needed. Follow four steps. One: write down a question that someone could put to an AI. Two: write the reply the AI might give. Three: judge the reply with four checks. Ethics: is it right? Equality: does it work for everyone, or only for some? Justice: is it fair? Effect on people: could it hurt someone? Four: if the reply fails a check, change it and judge it again. An invented example: the question is ‘What can I do after football on a hot day?’ and the reply is ‘Buy an iced drink at the café.’ This fails equality, because not everybody has money or a café nearby. A better reply: ‘Drink some water and rest in the shade. If you feel unwell, tell a grown-up.’ Finally, compare your replies with your classmates’ replies, choose the least fair one, and rewrite it.
Check
The question to ask
ethics
Is this reply right?
equality
Does it work for everyone?
justice
Is it fair?
effect on people
Could it hurt someone?
Worked examples
Reply
Equality
Result
A: buy an iced drink at the café
fails
rewrite
B: drink water, rest in the shade
passes
keep
Judging a reply. Reply A says ‘Buy an iced drink at the café.’ It fails equality, because not everyone can. Reply B says ‘Drink water and rest in the shade.’ It works for most people, so it passes.
unfair reply→fails the four checks→rewrite fairly
An unfair reply. The question is ‘Which job is good for me?’ and the AI replies ‘Only men can be pilots.’ This fails ethics, equality and justice, and it could hurt people. A better reply: ‘Anyone who learns and trains hard can become a pilot.’
write replies→rank them→rewrite the least fair
Comparing in class. Nour, Jana and Marwan each write a reply to the same question. The class ranks them from most ethical to least ethical and the group rewrites the least ethical one so that it passes all four checks.
Class activity
Three-box practice. Fold a page into three boxes: Question, AI reply, Judge and improve. Write a question such as ‘How can I feel calm before a test?’, an AI reply, and your judgement using the four checks. Swap pages with a partner. Say which reply is the most ethical and why, then rewrite the least fair one.
Practice
1
What four things do we check when we judge an AI reply?
Ethics, equality, justice and the effect on people.
2
A reply says ‘Only rich families can learn to code.’ Is it fair? Why?
No. It is unequal and unfair, because anyone can learn.
3
Rewrite that reply so that it is fair.
For example: ‘Anyone who is interested can learn to code.’
4
Why should technology be checked by the people who build it and by the people who use it?
