Readings

The readings for this week are:

Self-Driving Cars

1. All Tesla Cars Being Produced Now Have Full Self-Driving Hardware

   • Self-driving tractors and data science: we visit a modern farm

   • Exclusive: GM plans to build, test thousands of self-driving Bolts in 2018 - sources

   • Ford’s billion-dollar self-driving car AI deal

2. Uber's First Self-Driving Fleet Arrives in Pittsburgh This Month

   • The Arrival of Self-Driving Ubers in Pittsburgh

   • Lyft says robots will drive most of its cars in five years

   • Uber Suspends Tests of Self-Driving Vehicles After Arizona Crash

3. Inside the Self-Driving Tesla Fatal Accident

   • Car makers can't "drive their way to safety" with self-driving cars

   • What we know and what we don't know about accidents involving self-driving cars

   • NHTSA’s full final investigation into Tesla’s Autopilot shows 40% crash rate reduction

4. Self-Driving Cars Gain Powerful Ally: The Government

   • California issues more self-driving permits, Iowa creates testing corridor

   • Self-Driving Cars Must Meet 15 Benchmarks in U.S. Guidance

5. The social dilemma of autonomous vehicles

   • Gas, brake, honk: Google is teaching its self-driving car to assert itself

   • Tesla's 'Autopilot' Will Make Mistakes. Humans Will Overreact.

   • Your Self-Driving Car Will Be Programmed to Kill You-Deal With It

Automation

1. A World without Work

   • The End of Labor: How to Protect Workers From the Rise of Robots

   • Robots: Destroying jobs, our economy, and possibly the world

   • Amazon, robots and the near-future rise of the automated warehouse

   • How Artificial Intelligence and Robots Will Radically Transform the Economy

2. Drones could replace $127 billion worth of human labour

   • Foxconn replaces '60,000 factory workers with robots'

   • EXCLUSIVE: US army 'will have more ROBOT SOLDIERS than humans' by 2025

   • McDonald's ex-CEO: $15/hr minimum wage will unleash the robot rebellion

   • Robots are already replacing fast-food workers

3. Episode 621: When Luddites Attack

   • Episode 622: Humans vs. Robots

   • Episode 623: The Machine Comes To Town

   • Episode 624: I, Waiter

4. Technology isn't working

   • Were the Luddites right about technology and jobs?

   • The Rise of Job-Killing Automation? Not So Fast

   • Will Robots Put Everyone Out of Work? Automation Is Good for Humans

   • The Age of the Robot Worker Will Be Worse for Men

5. The Robot Revolution in Caregiving

   • IBM's Watson Cognitive AI Platform Evolves, Senses Feelings And Dances Gangnam Style At NVIDIA GTC

   • IBM Watson now powers a Hilton hotel robot concierge

6. The CEO of United Technologies just let slip an unintended consequence of the Trump-Carrier jobs deal

   • Most US manufacturing jobs lost to technology, not trade

   • The Long-Term Jobs Killer Is Not China. It’s Automation.

   • Trump treasury secretary: R2-D2 won't take your job for 50 years

7. As Our Jobs Are Automated, Some Say We'll Need A Guaranteed Basic Income

   • It's time to start talking seriously about Basic Income

   • Silicon Valley's Unchecked Arrogance

   • Commentary: Universal Basic Income May Sound Attractive But, If It Occurred, Would Likelier Increase Poverty Than Reduce It

   • Robots won't just take our jobs – they'll make the rich even richer

   • The robot that takes your job should pay taxes, says Bill Gates

Questions

Please write a response to one of the following questions:

1. After reading some of the articles above, address the following questions:

   • What is the motivation for developing and building self-driving cars? What are the arguments for and against self-driving cars? Would they make our roads safer?

   • How should programmers address the "social dilemma of autonomous vehicles"? How should an artificial intelligence approach life-and-death situations? Who is liable for when an accident happens?

   • What do you believe will be the social, economic, and political impact of self-driving cars? What role should the government play in regulating self-driving cars?

   • Would you want a self-driving car? Explain why or why not.

2. From the readings, how is automation impacting employment? What are the social, political, and economic implications of replacing human labor with automation on a massive scale?

   • Were the Luddites right about technology and jobs? Should we halt development of automation technology or at least temper it to ensure employment of human laborers, or does automation free humans for other endeavors?

   • Are you comfortable with artificial intelligence taking over work normally performed by humans? How about artificial intelligence performing typically "human" activities such as caregiving, creating artist works, or making life-or-death decisions?

   • Is a Universal Basic Income a viable means of addressing the concerns over loss of employment due to mass automation or is it unnecessary? How does society deal with a future with mass automation and lower employment (or is this not really a problem)? How do we prevent the rich from simply getting richer (or do we even care about preventing that)?

   • Is automation ultimately a good thing or a bad thing for humanity? What are the ethical implications for those who develop and utilize these automation technologies?

Feedback

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns regarding the course, please provide your feedback at the end of your response.