Use of AI Tools

Please read all instructions both before you begin the assignment and after you complete it. Double check the rubric to make sure you have completed all steps.

In this writing assignment, you will critically analyze a New York Times Opinion piece from January 2024.

Steps/Questions:

1.Summary and pros/cons of ChatGPT:

Read the New York Times article, “How the Federal Government Can Rein In A.I. in Law Enforcement” by Joy Buolamwini and Barry Friedman.

(a)  Summarize the article. In about a paragraph, describe the article and its arguments.

(b)  Enter the following prompt into ChatGPT (https://chat.openai.com): “Summarize Joy Buolamwini and Barry Friedman's article called 'How the Federal Government Can Rein In A.I. in Law Enforcement'”. What response does ChatGPT give you? Did it surprise you?

(c)  Now enter this next prompt into ChatGPT: “How can and why should the government

regulate AI in law enforcement”. (Be patient, sometimes open AI does not work or is slow; I would advise you to copy ChatGPT’s response the first time you enter this prompt). Read

ChatGPT’s response. Do you find OpenAI/ChatGPT or Buolamwini & Friedman’s NYT article more convincing? And why?

(d)  Copy your first paragraph and ask ChatGPT to edit it for you. Without changing your first paragraph, paste ChatGPT’s version into your assignment. Did ChatGPT do a good job of editing your writing to be clearer without losing the meaning, yes or no? Explain.

For steps 2, 3, and 4: The article discusses how errors happen because of the bias in the technology, but also because there is insufficient training and inadequate guardrails for using the technology. This highlights that it matters how humans interact with and use the A.I. technology.

2.Taste-based discrimination in the context of A.I. and facial recognition:

Consider the Becker model.

(e)  In your own words, give a brief description of the Becker model of discrimination.

For parts b and c, imagine that instead of the typical discrimination coefficient d measuring an individual’s amount of taste-based discrimination, it measures an individual's taste-based discrimination plus the algorithm’s amount of discrimination.

(f)   What would this mean for the demand curve in the Becker model graph? (Hint: Does it get steeper or flatter?)

(g) What does this mean for the equilibrium amount of discrimination in the market?

 2.Statistical discrimination in the context of A.I. and facial recognition:

Now assume that there is no preference-based discrimination, but that officers/agencies operate under the model of statistical discrimination.

(h) In your own words, give a brief description of the model of statistical discrimination.

(i)    If these officers/agencies are informed that the facial recognition technology is biased and less good at predicting accurately when the person is Black, how should this information change how the technology is used? (Hint: In other words, should officers/agencies use the algorithmic information more or less when assessing Black individuals, relative to White people?) Explain.

Recommendations:

 The article discusses that the policy proposal calls for transparency, a cost-benefit analysis that especially includes risks to marginalized communities, testing in the real world, and getting comments from the public.

(j)   What is an incentive-based policy that you think should be used in addition to these recommendations?

(k)  Regarding one of these recommendations (yours or from the article), what is one barrier that you think would make it hard to implement in reality? Explain why it would be difficult to implement.

(l)   In response to your answer to part (b), what is one way you might be able to get around this implementation barrier?3.Format:

1.  The informal word limit is 1000 words, but I will not take off points on this assignment if you are below/above that word count. This is only a rough length suggestion.

2.  You should answer each step as a separate question. You do not need to write an introduction or conclusion. You do not need to restate the questions I asked. Focus on the economics; I am not going to judge the quality of your writing (so long as it is readable and relatively typo free), but

rather the quality of the economic thought behind them. Write freely and then revise to express your ideas clearly and concisely.

3.  You can write in the first person, using “I” statements.

4.  To make it easier for me to read, please use Times New Roman 12-point font with double-spaced lines. You must submit either a .doc or .pdf file.

5.  Please follow APA style when discussing different racial/ethnic groups. Current APA style recommends using “South Asian people”, “South Asian Americans”, “South Asian folks”, etc. , rather than “South Asians”, for example. Use race/ethnicity in this way as a descriptor rather than as a noun for all groups. Additionally, always capitalize Black, White, Hispanic, Asian, etc. See the document posted in the assignment instructions if you would like more explanation.

6.  You can cite any outside sources you use in Chicago, MLA, or whatever format you prefer. As long as I can find the source and read it myself, I won’t take off points for the style of your bibliography. Note that you should be able to complete this assignment without any outside sources.

7.  Grading: The points are distributed across questions as follows. There is partial credit within questions, but no partial credit will be given for answers without evidence or careful reasoning. I will follow the below rubric. There is no partial credit within any of the subsections unless otherwise stated. I will take off 12.5 points (50%) for late submissions and I reserve the right to take off additional points for essays that did not follow the formatting guidelines.