Data and Artificial Intelligence Ethics MSc (Online Learning) The University of Edinburgh

This programme meets the urgent demand for interdisciplinary skills and knowledge in the ethical design, use and governance of artificial intelligence and other data-intensive technologies.

Today, many organisations and sectors that work with artificial intelligence (AI) and data-intensive applications are missing the distinctive expertise in their technical and policy/governance workforce needed to answer society’s ethical demands for responsible technology use, which increasingly goes beyond mere legal compliance.

Faced with rising public expectations and regulatory demands that new technologies will be applied not just legally, but ethically, all sectors require skilled graduates armed with critical, creative and higher-order data skills. Graduates of this programme will help their future employers to navigate complex new technical systems and roles with transparency, accountability, fairness, justice, and respect for individual and human rights, and in ways aligned with genuine human and social needs.

Our interdisciplinary degree is designed with the University of Edinburgh’s world-leading academic expertise in this area, drawing on philosophy, law, informatics, and science and technology innovation studies (STIS). It leverages the research power and mission of the Futures Institute’s Centre for Technomoral Futures, which promotes sustainable, just and ethical outcomes for artificial intelligence (AI) and data-driven technology.

On this programme you will:

• build the complex cognitive and collaborative skills needed to become knowledgeable and competent in responsible and ethical data and AI development, use and governance
• develop an understanding of the ethical, legal, policy and design values, principles and practices that enable responsible use of data and AI
• gain practical experience working and communicating about AI and data ethics with other stakeholders and practitioners across sectors, disciplines and publics

You will learn how ethical norms and principles map onto the distinctive technical affordances of AI and data science; how ethics intersects with other forms of technology governance such as law, policy, design and professional standards; and how ethics relates to broader political and cultural contestations of algorithmic, corporate and state power and influence. Perhaps most importantly, you will gain practice in working and communicating about AI and data ethics with other stakeholders and practitioners across sectors, disciplines and publics.

Postgraduate study at the Edinburgh Futures Institute

This programme is part of an interconnected portfolio of postgraduate study in the Edinburgh Futures Institute (EFI). EFI supports interdisciplinary teaching, learning and research that is focussed on complex global and social challenges.

Our programmes are all taught by academic experts from many different subject areas. You will develop creative, critical and data-informed thinking that cuts across traditional disciplinary boundaries. You will have the space to think deeply about questions linked to your own passions and professional goals, and will develop a project based on an issue that you care about.

As well as knowledge specific to your area of study, studying at EFI will give you the skills and understanding you need to become a creative, confident and critical citizen in a fast-changing world. These will include:

• core data skills
• data ethics
• the ability to interrogate issues of global scope
• the creative and analytic approaches to knowledge that are vital for building better futures

You can join us regardless of whether you already have skills in the use and application of digital data.

The University of Edinburgh is currently ranked 15th in the World in the QS World University Rankings 2023.

On successful completion of this programme, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and critical understanding of:

• current challenges for the ethical design and use of data-intensive and artificial intelligence technologies
• common principles, practices and methods of applied ethics and how they relate to technology governance tools such as law, policy, and design
• how to identify, analyse, propose and evaluate a range of design and governance interventions that can align AI and data-intensive tools with ethical norms
• how to translate and clearly articulate ethical concepts and framings for multiple audiences and across different domains of data/AI application
• how to lead and work collaboratively with others to produce clear, accessible, and actionable guidance and tools for ethical design and governance of AI and data-intensive technologies

This programme has the potential to fill a substantial skills gap in the existing labour market that is increasingly recognised by institutions; namely, the need for skills of ethical design, development and governance of emerging AI and data-intensive technologies.

Many organisations struggle to manage the ethical risks associated with these technologies, which call for new expertise and skillsets beyond legal compliance or business risk management in the conventional sense.

Depending on your other skillsets (for example in data science, machine learning, health, finance, law, policy or business), completing this degree will lead to expanded career opportunities across the public, private and third sectors, in areas such as:

• policy
• compliance
• privacy
• trust and safety
• information services and security *responsible innovation
• product management
• regulatory oversight
• non-profit research and advocacy

Online learning

The EFI model (which we call ‘fusion’ teaching) allows you to study on a fully online basis, or to combine online with on-campus study.

Since online and on-campus students study together, and we want to provide flexibility to move from on-campus to online study, we charge the same tuition fee levels for online study as for on-campus study.

Programme structure

On this programme you will study the following:

• portfolio of ‘shared core’ courses (40 credits) which teach the essential critical and hands-on data skills, enquiry methods, ethical and creative capacities needed to underpin your programme-based studies
• core courses (20 credits) specific to your programme
• a project (taking the form of a 20-credit ‘integration and project planning’ course, and a 40-credit final project)
• a wide choice of short 10 credit optional courses (60 credits), at least two of which must be on topics related to your programme, with scope to study across the entire EFI portfolio

Core courses

You will take the following core courses for your programme:

• Data Ethics as a Practice
• Data and AI Ethics, Law and Governance

You will also take the following 10 credit shared core courses, which are compulsory for Edinburgh Futures Institute students on all programmes:

• Interdisciplinary Futures
• Insights through Data or Text Remix (choose one)
• Ethical Data Futures
• Representing Data or Building Near Futures (choose one)

On all of these shared core courses you will be in cross-disciplinary teams with students from other programme areas. You will learn to collect, manage and analyse computational datasets, and to use emerging methodologies for mapping and designing the future. You will also learn the fundamentals of data ethics, and how to use creative skills in the analysis and representation of data-informed and qualitative inquiry.

Optional courses

Edinburgh Futures Institute offers a wide portfolio of about 40-50 optional courses taught by academic staff from across many discipline areas including approximately six to eight courses on topics associated with your programme. The exact courses will vary from year to year – in 2023-24 the courses associated with your programme may include:

• Democracy, Rights and the Rule of Law in the Data-Driven Society
• Translational AI and Data Ethics
• Algorithmic Bias, Fairness and Justice
• Ethics of Robotics and Autonomous Systems

Optional courses from across the wider portfolio will cover a range of themes and topics, such as:

• critical perspectives on how new technologies are changing society
• data, programming and research skills that advance the skills taught in the EFI shared core
• how new and rapidly changing technologies and data sources are transforming the future of democracy
• what the future of education might look like
• how narratives drive the way we understand the world
• bringing service design and service management together to build change in a data-driven society
• current challenges and futures for the creative industries

The project

In your final project, you will be able to apply your learning in depth to a domain, issue or concern which drives you.

It could be based on your own personal or professional interests, defined by your employer, sponsored by one of EFI’s industry, government or community partners, or aligned to one of the our research programmes.

You can submit your final project report as a written piece of work, or combine text with other forms as appropriate – for example, video, visualisation, a digital artefact, performance, code.

You will provisionally identify your project topic relatively early on in the programme, and work on it in parallel with the taught courses. We expect projects to take an interdisciplinary approach which connects with the creative, data and future-oriented nature of the EFI core.

Part-time and full-time options

Full-time students on the programme take these courses in one year. Part-time students take the same courses as full-time students, over either two or three years:

• for the two-year version, you will take 80 credits of courses in year one and 100 credits (including the project) in year two
• for the three-year versions, students take 120 credits of courses over years one and two (with up to 80 credits per year in each year), and then take the project (60 credits) in year three

Postgraduate Certificate or Postgraduate Diploma

You can also study for a Postgraduate Certificate or Postgraduate Diploma.

You will have two years to undertake the Postgraduate Diploma, taking the same taught courses as students on the MSc, but not the project. They will take a total of 120 credits of courses - between 40 and 80 in each year.

You will have one year to undertake the Postgraduate Certificate, taking 60 credits of courses, including between 10 and 40 credits of the EFI ‘shared core’ courses, between 20 and 50 credits of programme-specific courses (either the programme core courses or optional courses), and up to 30 credits from the broader suite of EFI optional courses.