ABSTRACT
Judging whether an act is right or wrong is the domain of ethics. The ideas behind a rules-based versus consequences-based approach to ethics are covered by many books, articles, classes, and philosophers, and these approaches are summarized in the introduction of the chapter. The readings included in this chapter, feminist ethics of care, virtue ethics, and principles based on critical race theory, widen the lens through which we judge data analytics program to better see those who are marginalized and not easily seen or heard as well as ground our analysis in the details of design, offer ethical approaches which bring a unique voice, and therefore should be heard from the authors themselves. These approaches should be seen as broadening the lens by which we examine data analytics programs. In addition, data analytics programs predict and categorize people, wherein they reinforce or undermine existing categorizations or power structures such as who is allowed in and who is rejected, who is recognized, and who is not. Therefore, critical theories are a crucial tool to understand the power being distributed with data analytics programs. Readings included are from Shannon Vallor on technomoral virtues, Carolina Villegas-Galaviz on the ethics of care and AI, and Poole et al. on using critical race theory in examining AI. The cases are on the natural language processing and PrimEyes, a facial recognition website open to anyone to use.
