This course offers crucial insights into the societal impact of AI and computing, especially how technology influences democratic functions and what responsible professional practice entails for IT professionals and managers. You'll explore recurring key concepts in computer and AI ethics that illuminate today's challenging digital landscape. Gain practical understanding of principal approaches to addressing complex issues, including the importance of supporting regulatory frameworks such as the evolving AI Act

The course will guide you through:

• Foundations of Computer & AI Ethics: Establishing a clear understanding of the core principles shaping responsible technology.
• Ethical Reasoning for Digital Dilemmas: Learn argumentation approaches to analyse and engage with complex AI, IT, and computing issues.
• Mastering Key Ethical Concepts: Explore fundamental ideas like the 'policy vacuum', 'problem of the many hands', and the critical balance between privacy and surveillance.
• Real-World Ethical Challenges: Examine a selection of infamous cases and current questions in AI and computer ethics, which illustrate key and emerging concepts through recurring real-world cases.  

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Achieve foundational literacy in computer and AI ethics.
• Demonstrate familiarity with recurring and emerging key ethical concepts in technology.
• Critically recognize underlying ethical problems frequently highlighted in "AI scares" news headlines.
• Confidently adapt from reactive to proactive reasoning, enabling them to construct sound ethical arguments.

  This course combines interactive lecture sessions with ample opportunities for active participant engagement. You'll develop your skills through critical questioning, argument formation, and lively discussions, which may include class-wide informal polls or hands-on breakout group activities to stimulate deeper understanding.