An online course about robot ethics and AI concerns

It's back-to-school time again, and soon university life and evening classes will begin. If you are feeling left out, there are always myriad MOOCs (massive online open courses) to choose from. One particularly relevant course for these times of techno-fretting over the possibility of rebellious robots and anarchic AI is Responsible Innovation: Ethics, Safety and Technology.

This seven-week course is hosted on the EdX platform and created by the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands with Jeroen van den Hoven, a professor of moral philosophy, at the helm. Van den Hoven will argue the case for ethics as an integral part of responsible technological research and innovation in terms of assessing the risks of technologies such as AI. It will also explore ethical concerns in the very design process so as to break the mindset of "ask for forgiveness, not for permission", which more often than not puts technological progress before society.

Case studies on this course will include exploring the ethical concerns and risks associated with nanotechnology, self-driving vehicles, robots, AI smart meters for electricity, autonomous weapons and nuclear energy.