The domain of Artificial Intelligence (AI) ethics is not new, with discussions going back at least 40 years. Teaching the principles and requirements of ethical AI to students is considered an essential part of this domain, with an increasing number of technical AI courses taught at several higher-education institutions around the globe including content related to ethics. By using Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA), a generative probabilistic topic model, this study uncovers topics in teaching ethics in AI courses and their trends related to where the courses are taught, by whom, and at what level of cognitive complexity and specificity according to Bloom’s taxonomy. In this exploratory study based on unsupervised machine learning, we analyzed a total of 166 courses: 116 from North American universities, 11 from Asia, 36 from Europe, and 10 from other regions. Based on this analysis, we were able to synthesize a model of teaching approaches, which we call BAG (Build, Assess, and Govern), that combines specific cognitive levels, course content topics, and disciplines affiliated with the department(s) in charge of the course. We critically assess the implications of this teaching paradigm and provide suggestions about how to move away from these practices. We challenge teaching practitioners and program coordinators to reflect on their usual procedures so that they may expand their methodology beyond the confines of stereotypical thought and traditional biases regarding what disciplines should teach and how. 
This article appears in the AI & Society track.

Get out of the BAG! Silos in AI Ethics Education: Unsupervised Topic Modeling Analysis of Global AI Curricula

Information systems are pervasive in organizations of all sizes. To use them securely, users must be properly trained. Because of the pervasiveness of information systems the number of scientific publications reporting on user training for secure use of information systems is increasing year by year. To overcome the issue of manually surveying such a vast body of knowledge and to keep up with research trends, we conducted bibliometric mapping of research on user training for secure use of information systems. A total of N = 1955 records published between 1991 and 2019 were retrieved from the Web of Science bibliographic database on 21 November 2019. Top contributing authors, organizations, countries and research field were identified with the Web of Science built-in results analysis tool. Additionally, keyword mapping was performed with VOSviewer software. The analysis of the network and overlay keyword maps revealed six clusters: healthcare, technology adoption, management, information security, technical solutions and physical security. The results of this study suggest attractive research directions to be pursued in the future, such as information security training in healthcare and individualized user training alternatives to one-size-fits-all user training approach.

Bibliometric Mapping of Research on User Training for Secure Use of Information Systems

Technology brings different benefits to society and involves challenges and ethical dilemmas that must be considered during any technology development. In this sense, graduates must recognise the social, legal, ethical and cultural issues inherent to the discipline of computer science. However, there is a lack of integration of computer ethics in the computer science curriculum in Spanish universities. This work introduces a pilot experience to develop a Small Private Open Course (SPOC) to introduce computer ethics as an extracurricular activity in the Bachelor’s Degree of Computer Engineering at the University of Salamanca.

Development of a SPOC of Computer Ethics for students of Computer Science degree

Artificial intelligence and sustainable development goals nexus via four vantage points

Defining the unscholarly publication: a bibliometric study of uncited and barely cited publications

The products built by engineers are enabling better economies, infrastructures, sustainable living, and longer life spans. There is a rising concern about the ethical considerations taken while designing these disruptive products. To ensure ethical products, the pedagogy and curricula of engineering ethics need to be sound. In this study, we try to understand what is being taught when teaching engineering ethics. To do so, we perform a curricular analysis of 123 engineering/ tech ethics courses from around the globe by analyzing their syllabi to shed light on the topics that are covered in curricula and how they relate to current world problems. We also perform a bibliometric analysis and look at 350 research articles on engineering ethics, published in the past 20 years in four top research venues. This enabled us to observe the evolution of the research trends in the engineering ethics research community. We in the end focus on the demographic distribution and global inclusion into the engineering ethics debate. Through this combined bibliometric and curricular analysis, we explore the state of engineering ethics and present insights that will be useful for engineering educators, researchers, and practitioners alike.

Work in Progress: Pedagogy of Engineering Ethics: A Bibliometric and Curricular Analysis

The ACM Special Interest Group on Data Communications (SIGCOMM) has been a major research forum for fifty years. This community has had a major impact on the history of the Internet, and therefore we argue its exploration may reveal fundamental insights into the evolution of networking technologies around the globe. Hence, on the 50th anniversary of SIGCOMM, we take this opportunity to reflect upon its progress and achievements, through the lens of its various publication outlets, e.g., the SIGCOMM conference, IMC, CoNEXT, HotNets. Our analysis takes several perspectives, looking at authors, countries, institutes and papers. We explore trends in co-authorship, country-based productivity, and knowledge flow to and from SIGCOMM venues using bibliometric techniques. We hope this study will serve as a valuable resource for the computer networking community.

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Rana Tallal Javed

Papers

Work in Progress: Pedagogy of Engineering Ethics: A Bibliometric and Curricular Analysis

Five decades of the ACM special interest group on data communications (SIGCOMM): a bibliometric perspective