Teaching by the Ethics of AI group
This is the teaching program of the Ethics and Critical Theories of Artificial Intelligence research group at the Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Osnabrück.
The lecture Introduction to the Ethics of AI was repeated in the winter terms 2021/22 and 2022/23 and will be given again in summer term 2024. The lecture is open to the public. Recordings are available here: [Recordings 2022/23]
My office consultation hours / Sprechstunde for students can be found here.
Winter Term 2023/24 (16 October 2023 – 2 February 2024)
- 8.3102 Research colloquium ethics and critique in the digital society
3 hrs/week 4 ECTS points
Time: Wed. 9–12 Room: tba. Format: hybrid
Instructor: Rainer Mühlhoff
×This colloquium covers advanced topics in the Ethics of AI, critical social theory of the digital society, privacy and data protection. We read recent publications in the field as well as classical texts, and debate presentations of ongoing projects. Each session will combine text-based work with extensive discussions in a 3-hour format. The colloquium is open to advanced Ph.D., MA and BA students specializing in the field, including but not limited to those who aim to write their BA/MA/Ph.D. thesis in the Ethics of AI research group.
Prerequisites: This course requires advanced knowledge in the field of Ethics of AI. This is typically acquired through the “Introduction to the Ethics of AI” lecture and seminars offered by the members of Ethics of AI research group.
Interested new m - 8.3101 Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics
Seminar 2 hrs/week 4 ECTS points
Time: Tue. 14–16 Room: 50/E07 Format: hybrid
Instructor: Rainer Mühlhoff
×In this seminar, we will explore Aristotle’s classic work on ethics, the “Nicomachean Ethics”. This work remains one of the most influential and widely studied ethical treatises in the Western tradition. Throughout the semester, we will work through the entire text and discuss Aristotle’s arguments and ideas about the nature of the good life, human flourishing, and virtue. We will also debate to what extent Aristotle’s ethics is still relevant in relation to ethics in the digital society. Against the backdrop of the contemporary framing of ethics as a discipline that produces “guidelines” and “checklists” (which is particularly evident in the field of the ethics of artificial intelligence), Aristotle offers an opportunity to develop a richer and more comprehensive idea of ethics. As we shall see, the Aristotelian model of practical philosophy, which is called “ethics”, integrates a theory of happiness, virtues, and right action, with a theory of the political as a specific way of social coexistence of people in a community. This seminar is intended for students with an interest in philosophy and ethics, potentially in relation to contemporary ethical and political questions. By the end of the course, students will have a deep understanding of Aristotle’s ethical theory and its relevance to a critical engagement with contemporary ethical debates. No prerequisites. Participation involves reading the ~300 pages of Aristotle’s ethics over the semester in weekly portions. This is a hybrid class: Students can participate on site or remotely in Big Blue Button. A webcam is required for remote participation.
- 8.3103 Data Ethics Outreach Lab [Study Project]
Study Project 6 hrs/week 12 ECTS points
Time: Wed. 14–17 Room: 50/E07 Format: hybrid
Instructor: Rainer Mühlhoff and Team
× - 8.3104 Data Ethics Outreach Lab [Begleitseminar]
Interdisciplinary Course 4 hrs/week 6 ECTS points
Time: Wed. 14–17 Room: 50/E07 Format: hybrid
Instructor: Rainer Mühlhoff and Team
×
Summer Term 2023 (11 April – 14 July)
- 8.3583 Research colloquium ethics and critique in the digital society
3 hrs/week 4 ECTS points
Time: Tue. 14–17 Room: tba. Format: hybrid
Instructor: Rainer Mühlhoff
×This colloquium covers advanced topics in the Ethics of AI, critical social theory of the digital society, privacy and data protection. We read recent publications in the field as well as classical texts, and debate presentations of ongoing projects. Each session will combine text-based work with extensive discussions in a 3-hour format. The colloquium is open to advanced Ph.D., MA and BA students specializing in the field, including but not limited to those who aim to write their BA/MA/Ph.D. thesis in the Ethics of AI research group.
Prerequisites: This course requires advanced knowledge in the field of Ethics of AI. This is typically acquired through the “Introduction to the Ethics of AI” lecture and seminars offered by the members of Ethics of AI research group.
Interested new members need to be approved to the course after sending me an email introducing yourself and your experience in the field. - 8.3539 Data Ethics Outreach Lab [Study Project]
Study Project 6 hrs/week 12 ECTS points
Time: Wed. 9–12 Room: tba. Format: hybrid
Instructor: Rainer Mühlhoff and Team
× - 8.354 Data Ethics Outreach Lab [Interdisciplinary Seminar]
Interdisciplinary Course 4 hrs/week 6 ECTS points
Time: Wed. 9–12 Room: tba. Format: hybrid
Instructor: Rainer Mühlhoff and Team
× - 8.3586 An introduction to science and technology studies
Intensive Course 4 hrs/week 6 ECTS points
Time: Tue. 10–12 + Wed. 14–16 Room: 93/E07 Format: in person
Instructor: Nora Freya Lindemann
×Science and technology studies (STS) is an interdisciplinary field of research which questions the relations between culture, politics, society, and the establishment of scientific knowledge and technology. Starting with some seminal texts, the seminar will later focus on feminist science and technology studies and recent publications in the area. Apart from discussing the assigned readings and the theoretical work on STS, this intensive course will have a focus on practicing academic writing skills.
Prior participation in at least one of the Philosophy of Cognitive Science courses is recommended.
This is a 6 ECTs intensive Course. Passing requires attendance of the seminar Tuesday 10-12 and the supplementary seminar Wednesday 14-16. - 8.3601 Critical perspectives on AI
Seminar 2 hrs/week 4 ECTS points
Time: Wed. 12–14 Room: 93/E12 Format: in person
Instructor: Paul Schütze
×In this seminar we will look at a variety of critical perspectives on AI and Big Tech in general. We will discuss, for instance, different conceptions of AI today, perspectives of digital colonialism, AI in connection to the climate crisis, the visions and narratives that surround and shape AI, and the power structures and inequalities that are inherent to AI. The overall goal of the seminar is to develop a critical understanding of AI from different theoretical perspectives. We will see what a critical discourse about AI currently looks like, what it offers and what it does not; and you will get a theoretical baseline to develop your own critical perspectives on AI.
The course will be based on readings. Thus, it will help, if you have some experiences with philosophical texts and/ or the willingness to carefully read and prepare such texts.
Winter Term 2022/23
- 8.3529 Introduction to the Ethics of AI
Lecture with Exercises 4 hrs/week 6 ECTS points
Time: Tue. 10–12 + discussion group Room: 11/212 (Schloss) Format: hybrid recordings
Instructor: Rainer Mühlhoff
×This lecture provides an introduction to the emerging field of the Ethics of AI. It is open to all interested students of all levels, including those from the humanities, as well as scientific and technical disciplines.
The class is offered as a lecture with exercise groups (Vorlesung mit Übung). To earn ECTS points, students will have to participate in the 2 hr/week lecture and in a 2 hr/week discussion group.
The lecture is an ideal starting point to get an orientation in the field and to possibly start engaging with more specialized courses and/or research projects in the context of the Ethics of AI group at the IKW. The lecture will provide an overview of problems, philosophical theories and methods that comprise the field of Ethics of AI. This includes both the philosophical foundations of ethics and critical theory as well as different technological phenomena and legal aspects of AI. A particular focus will be contemporary data-driven and machine learning-based AI technology and its applications in digital consumer media. As we will see, questions of social equality and fairness are central to today’s ethical concerns about AI, so that ethics needs to adopt a societal perspective, analyzing constellations of power, discrimination and subordination that relate to AI technology. We will also touch on relevant legal debates such as privacy and data protection legislation.
The lecture is hybrid and will be available in three formats: On site in the lecture hall; live stream on BBB; and asynchronous participation via video recordings.
Discussion groups (also called tutorials) will be 15–25 students each, meeting on a weekly basis to do background readings and have discussions on the topics of the lecture. Students will self-subscribe to one of the 4 weekly discussion groups. Details will be announced in the first session.
- 8.3548 What is Critique? A philosophical introduction
Block seminar 2 hrs/week 4 ECTS points
Time: Blockseminar 4. + 17.–20.10.2022 (full day) Room: 50/E07 Format: in person
Instructor: Rainer Mühlhoff and Jan Siebold
×Critique, and critical thinking, is arguably the core of philosophy.
But what exactly is critique? Is it a method or an attitude? Is it a way of thinking? Is it always negative and “anti”? According to what criteria or standards are critiques formulated? And what does critique have to do with judgment and practice? How is it related to ethics, politics and activism? These and other questions will guide us in our block seminar “What is Critique? A philosophical introduction.” We will take a tour through the landmark works of critical philosophies by Marx, Horkheimer, Foucault, Butler, Haraway, Mbembe among others to gain a solid understanding of the philosophical discourse on critique.
A particular perspective we will take throughout the course is how we can apply what we read and discuss to today’s situation in the digital society. Which of the critical philosophies are suitable to be (re-)activated in the face of the effects of Big Data, algorithms and artificial intelligence technologies?
This is a reading seminar. For each session we will read and discuss a new author. Readings will be provided in advance and presentation groups will be formed in the preparatory meeting on 4 October (online event). The block course will take place in person during the week 17.–20. October from 10am–05pm at the IKW. This will be an intensive and fun week full of discussions. Social events will be (self-)organized on some evenings.
- 8.3539 Data Ethics Outreach Lab [Study Project]
Study Project 6 hrs/week 12 ECTS points
Time: Wed. 9–12 Room: tba. Format: hybrid
Instructor: Rainer Mühlhoff and Team
× - 8.3539 Data Ethics Outreach Lab [Interdisciplinary Seminar]
Interdisciplinary Course 4 hrs/week 6 ECTS points
Time: Wed. 9–12 Room: tba. Format: hybrid
Instructor: Rainer Mühlhoff and Team
× - 8.3536 Research Colloquium Ethics in the Digital Society
3 hrs/week 4 ECTS points
Time: Tue. 14–17 Room: tba. Format: hybrid
Instructor: Rainer Mühlhoff
×This colloquium covers advanced topics in the Ethics of AI, critical social theory of the digital society, privacy and data protection. We read recent publications in the field as well as classical texts, and debate presentations of ongoing projects. Each session will combine text-based work with extensive discussions in a 3-hour format. The colloquium is open to Ph.D. and MA students specializing in the field, including but not limited to those who aim to write their thesis in the Ethics of AI research group. Prerequisites: This course requires advanced knowledge in the field of Ethics of AI. This is typically acquired through the “Introduction to the Ethics of AI” lecture and seminars offered by the members of Ethics of AI research group. Interested students need to be approved to the course after sending me an email introducing yourself and your experience in the field. The course is taught in a hybrid format.
- 8.3567 Discrimination and AI
Seminar 2 hrs/week 4 ECTS points
Time: Thu. 14–16 Room: 93/E07 Format: in person
Instructor: Nora Freya Lindemann
× - 8.3547 Capital, nature and the climate crisis: An overview
Seminar 2 hrs/week 4 ECTS points
Time: Tue. 10–12 Room: 66/E01 Format: in person
Instructor: Paul Schütze
×
Summer Term 2022
- 8.3539 Data Ethics Outreach Lab [Study Project]
Study Project 6 hrs/week 12 ECTS points
Time: Wed. 9–12 Room: 50/E07 Format: hybrid
Instructor: Rainer Mühlhoff and Team
× - 8.354 Data Ethics Outreach Lab [Interdisciplinary Seminar]
Interdisciplinary Course 4 hrs/week 6 ECTS points
Time: Wed. 9–12 Room: 50/E07 Format: hybrid
Instructor: Rainer Mühlhoff and Team
× - 8.3536 Research Colloquium Ethics in the Digital Society
3 hrs/week 4 ECTS points
Time: Thu. 10–13 Room: tba. Format: hybrid
Instructor: Rainer Mühlhoff
×This colloquium covers advanced topics in the Ethics of AI, privacy and data protection, as well as critical social theory of the digital society. We read recent publications in the field and classical texts, and debate presentations of ongoing projects. Each session will combine text-based work with extensive discussions in a 3-hour format. The colloquium is open to advanced Ph.D., MA and BA students specialising in the field, including but not limited to those who aim to write their BA/MA/Ph.D. thesis in the Ethics of AI research group. Interested students, please send me a brief email introducing yourself and your experience in the field. The course will be taught in a “hybrid” format.
- 8.3542 The Ethics of 'Deathbots'
Seminar 2 hrs/week 4 ECTS points
Time: Wed. 14–16 Room: 32/106 Format: in person
Instructor: Nora Freya Lindemann
Description Scheinmaker StudIP
×In February 2021, Microsoft was granted a patent for a method to create individualized chatbots. The conversational bot would be modelled after one specific person, for example an acquaintance or relative of the person using the bot. This would make it, at least theoretically, possible to have a conversation with a bot that imitates the writing behavior of a dead friend or relative. This scenario may intuitively feel odd or wrong – a sentiment which may have led Microsoft to the decision not to implement such a system (yet) because of its “disturbing” character. Other startup companies, however, promise already to program personalized deathbots. Is it wrong to have deathbots? Or may they, on the contrary, be a good development? And if so, why? Should deathbots be allowed or should their use be restricted? What does the use of deathbot mean for our understanding of the deceased and bereft person? These are pressing ethical questions as the first deathbots enter the market. The sheer possibility to program deathbots does not mean that they are ethically permissible and should be implemented – while at the same time just because they mark a new development, it does not automatically mean that they are ethically impermissible. This seminar will give an overview over the ethics of deathbots. We will discuss literature on the ethics of chatbots and deathbots, debate deathbots in contrast to other (digital) afterlife presences and have a look at the ethics of digital remains more broadly.
- 8.3541 Digital Capitalism, Big Data and AI
Seminar 2 hrs/week 4 ECTS points
Time: Tue. 14–16 Room: 92/E02 Format: in person
Instructor: Paul Schütze
Description Scheinmaker StudIP
×We live in an age of information technologies where advances in Big Data and AI are major drivers of societal change, largely pushed forward by companies such as Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple and Microsoft. Yet, these technologies are not plain and neutral achievements, but they are expressions of economic logics and companies’ objectives – they are manifestations of what can broadly be called “digital capitalism”. In this seminar we want to build on the general understanding that the technologies of AI and Big Data are sociotechnical systems, and as such are always embedded in larger cultural and economic frameworks. Together we will get a better understanding of these frameworks, approaching them from various perspectives broadly unified under the heading of “digital capitalism”. On the basis of a variety of texts, we will discuss questions such as: What is “digital capitalism” and how does it shape and influence Big Data and AI? How do the sociotechnical systems of Big Data and AI fit into the picture of digital capitalism? And what does this influence imply for our understanding of these technologies?
Winter Term 2021/22
- 8.3529 Introduction to the Ethics of AI
Lecture 2 hrs/week 4 ECTS points
Time: Tue. 10–12 Room: 01/B01 Format: hybrid recordings
Instructor: Rainer Mühlhoff
Description recordings Scheinmaker StudIP
×This lecture provides an introduction to the emerging field of the Ethics of AI. It is open to all interested students of all levels, including those from the humanities, as well as scientific and technical disciplines. The lecture is an ideal starting point to get an orientation in the field and to possibly start engaging with more specialised courses and/or research projects in the context of the Ethics of AI group at the IKW. The lecture will provide an overview of problems, philosophical theories and methods that comprise the field of Ethics of AI. This includes both the philosophical foundations of ethics and critical theory as well as different technological phenomena and legal aspects of AI. A particular focus will be contemporary data-driven and machine learning-based AI technology and its applications in digital consumer media. As we will see, questions of social equality and fairness are central to today’s ethical concerns about AI, so that ethics needs to adopt a societal perspective, analysing constellations of power, discrimination and subordination that relate to AI technology. We will also touch on relevant legal debates such as privacy and data protection legislation and ask the questions of how to actually do ethics of AI in interdisciplinary collaborations. This lecture will be offered every winter term. In the summer term there will be a seminar that elaborates in more detail on some of the problems covered in the lecture. There will be a Klausur at the end of the semester to earn 4 ECTS points. The lecture will be taught online if the pandemic does not allow to fit everyone in thr same room.
- 8.3527 Critical Philosophies of Subjectivity 1: Michel Foucault
Seminar 2 hrs/week 4 ECTS points
Time: Mon. 14–16 Room: 69/E23 Format: hybrid
Instructor: Rainer Mühlhoff
Description Scheinmaker StudIP
×This BA and MA level seminar provides an introduction to the philosophy of power and subjectivity of the French philosopher Michel Foucault (1926–1984). Foucault is one of the most prominent theorists in what could be called the French school of critical philosophy in the 20st century, and a central figure in the sub-field called post-structuralism. Foucault’s work addresses the relationship of power and knowledge, and how both operate as social control through social practices and institutions (e.g. in psychiatry, in the hospital, in the criminal justice system, in education, …). In detailed historical analyses he shows how subjectivity (understood as the way of making sense of oneself and others), and in fact, the subject itself, is a product of situated power-knowledge complexes. In the seminar, we will read parts of Foucault’s works such as Discipline and Punish and History of Sexuality to map out his understanding of power, subjectivity and the related notions of subjectivation, critique, body and discourse. Additional readings of Louis Althusser will help us to contextualise Foucault further in the Marxist tradition. Reading Judith Butler, we will shed some light on how Foucault became a central reference in the critical philosophy of gender, (queer) sexuality and the body. In each session we will elaborate on how Foucault is relevant to an the ethics and critical philosophy of the Digital Age, trying to translate his concepts in today’s networked social world. The seminar is the first one in a series of seminars that will introduce major critical philosophies of subjectivity of the past 100 years. The goal of this series is to provide a solid background for ethics and critical theory of the AI and digital media. Prerequisites: none. This is an introductory seminar for all students with an interest in critical philosophy, continental philosophy, and ethics. The course might switch to “online” teaching depending on the development of the pandemic.
- 8.3528 Research Colloquium Ethics in the Digital Society
3 hrs/week 4 ECTS points
Time: Tue. 14–17 Room: 93/E09 Format: hybrid
Instructor: Rainer Mühlhoff
×This research colloquium covers advanced topics in the Ethics of AI, privacy and data protection, as well as critical social theory of the digital society. We will read recent publications in the field, re-read classical texts and debate presentations of ongoing projects. Each session will combine text-based work with extensive discussions in a 3-hour format. The research seminar is open to advanced MA and BA students and Ph.D. candidates specialising in the field, including but not limited to those who aim to write their BA/MA/Ph.D. thesis in the Ethics of AI research group. This course is open to advanced BA/MA/Ph.D. students and researchers. Interested students, please send me a brief email introducing yourself and your experience in the field. The course will be taught in a “hybrid” format and might switch to “online” depending on the development of the pandemic.
Archive of older classes (Summer Term 2021 and earlier)
This information is available in German only.
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2021, Sommersemester: Kolloquium “Ethik und Sozialphilosophie der Digitalen Gesellschaft”, TU Berlin.
Freitags 10–12 Uhr, Online-Veranstaltung.
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Herbst 2020: Fortbildung für Philosophie-Lehrer’innen im Rahmen der Regionalen Fortbildung Berlin der Senatsverwaltung für Bildung, Jugend und Familie, Berlin:
Materialien zur Veranstaltung „Datenschutz im Zeitalter von Big Data und KI“ Oktober/September 2020.
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2020, Sommersemester: Hauptseminar “Privacy and Data Ethics in Times of Big Data and AI”, Institut für Philosophie, TU Berlin.
Freitags, 10–12 Uhr, Online-Lehre, nähere Informationen siehe TUB ISIS.
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2019, Sommersemester: MA-Seminar “Technikphilosophie der Digitalen Gesellschaft”, Montag 10–12 Uhr, Seminarraum 2, Institut für Philosophie, FU Berlin.
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2018, Sommersemester: International Spring School The Power of Immersion: Performance – Affect – Politics. 9.–13. April, SFB 1171 Affective Societies, Freie Universität Berlin.
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2016/17, Wintersemester: MA-Seminar Michel Foucault Spätwerk: Ethik, Kritik, Freiheit. Institut für Philosophie, Freie Universität Berlin.
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2016, Sommersemester: MA-Seminar Massen Schwärme Multituden. Kollektivität im Blick der Affekt-Philosophie. Institut für Philosophie, Freie Universität Berlin.
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2015/16, Wintersemester: MA-Seminar Affect, Culture, Politics (mit Jan Slaby). Institut für Philosophie, Freie Universität Berlin.
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2014/15, Wintersemester: Workshop „Experience and Resonance in Public Space“ im Rahmen der COST Action IS1307 „Experience and Resonance“ mit Brian Massumi und Erin Manning, organisiert von Marie-Luise Angerer, 23.–26. Oktober 2014 an der Kunsthochschule für Medien, Köln.
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2011/12, Wintersemester: Einführung in die Algebraische Quantenfeldtheorie. MA-Seminar. Institut für Mathematik, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.
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2011, Sommersemester: Spinorfelder und Dirac-Gleichung auf gekrümmten Raumzeiten. MA-Seminar. Institut für Mathematik, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.