Outline for an SDGC Workshop

This one-day workshop introduces a few ideas that someone with a background in computer science (or tech more generally) needs to know in order to think clearly about the harms of social media and AI, and about how they should be regulated. I would be very grateful for feedback; in particular, I know I’m trying to cram far too much into one day, and many of my references are probably out of date. At a glance Length: one day (roughly eight hours, including breaks and lunch) Audience: people with programming backgrounds Format: 7 45-minute lessons, each followed by one 10-15 minute exercise taken from those listed with the lesson. Please see these pages for background. Stance Power in society is distributed very unequally, and much of what looks “neutral” or “technical” is actually a rule that favors some people over others. Inequality is substantially the product of policy choices and inherited advantage, not the natural sorting of individual talent. Markets are human institutions, not…