MIS231 Professional Ethics in the Digital Age Assessment Brief T1 2025 | Deakin

Assessment Task 1 - Report (Research) Individual

This assessment will require students to respond to a case study on the ethical use of technology, listing the positive and negative aspects of ethical dilemmas and apply the ethical theories taught in MIS231. 

Description of the Case

You are a new IT consultant at a software company, Software4You. Your clients are very interested in developing new AI applications serving many sectors that embed ethical decision-making practises. Working in the IT industry, you know of the advances made in AI and have some experience in designing applications with a strong ethical focus.

Software4You is keen to develop ethically minded automated decision-making AI applications for their clients. Automated decision-making applications are AI apps involving no human oversight. They recognise a key advantage of AI is its ability to automate decision-making, which reduces the workload on humans and significantly accelerates certain decision-making processes. However, Software4You also recognises automation poses significant challenges for society. If the automated decisions are beneficial, society will gain; but if they are detrimental, society will suffer.

Right now, the ethical way to using AI is with humans making the decision and algorithms executing the decision. However, Software4You recognises AI itself may require much more intricate ethical analysis, because AI operates at a much faster pace than humans, potentially leaving humans "out of the loop" due to our slower response times. This phenomenon is already evident in high-frequency trading (HFT) in the finance sector, which is rife with ethical dilemmas that are often overlooked. Software4You is keen to develop automated applications exhibiting ethical decision-making capabilities by starting with designing ethical HFT applications. 

With your help, Software4You sees itself as becoming the key player in developing ethical automated decision-making applications. 

Your task for this assignment is to research the positive and negative aspects and apply your moral and ethical thinking to the use of HFTs automated AI decision making applications. 

Below are questions that will ultimately help you decide how automated decision-making AI applications should be designed. To answer these questions, use reputable sources to support your arguments. 

Question 1: Researching the topic and ethical dilemmas in literature. 
What are the positive and negative aspects to using automated decision-making AI applications in HFTs? List at least three (3)arguments for each side, that is, at least three positives and three negative aspects. Support these arguments with reputable sources of evidence. HINT: find themes from your research in HFTs that will form arguments FOR and AGAINST the use of these AI systems. 

Question 2: Moral and ethical interrogation 
In this question, you will use your findings from Question 1 and knowledge of key ethical theories to inform whether you consider it moral to use automated AI decision making applications in these areas. The ethical dilemma statement relating to your work is: 

i. Should we use automated AI decision making in HFTs? 

• Using your findings from Part A, do you agree with the moral statement listed above in i? Why?
• Apply the main ethical theories (Deontologism, Utilitarianism, and Virtue ethics) to this statement.
• Write a concluding paragraph on whether you think it is appropriate to use automated decision- making AI applications in this area and how your morality (Question 1) and application of the ethical theories (Question 2) inform your final stance. 

This work will inform the second phase of your project (Assignment 2) as a consultant with Software4You. Specific instructions on your next task will be provided at a later stage.

Specific Requirements

Your written submission must include the following: 

• A cover page with your name and student ID. Introduce the paper with a paragraph stating the task and a Table of Contents to aid the readability of the text. There is no need for an executive summary.
• In the main text, use appropriate headings and write your response to each question. 
• The word count does not include the title page, Table of Contents and reference list. Use your judgment on how much you should write for each question.
• Cite all sources in your text and include a reference list using APA7 Referencing Style at the end of the document. 

Word Count:-1500 words