Sustainability, Ethics and Artificial Intelligence in Computing Education

Over the last five decades the discipline of Computing has transformed, from dedicated lab-based scientific tools and networks to ubiquitous, mobile ‘always on’ infotainment and communication platforms for society at large. The concurrent rapid growth in artificial intelligence, computation power and the infrastructure needed for communication and storage raises concerns that important issues of sustainable, ethical development and societal impact are not considered fully. Computing systems are having an increasingly negative impact on the environment, and yet they also are perhaps the key to unlocking huge improvements in sustainability. This paper evaluates the learning from a module delivered to Computing Technologies students at Ulster University. The rationale was that appraisal of ethics and its role in artificial intelligence will empower students, as future practitioners, to promote sustainability in the workplace.