Module 12 Discussion: Evaluating AI Trade-offs

Please submit all graded work via Canvas. Participation requirements and grading details are provided in Canvas.

This week focuses on concerns of AI, including privacy, environmental cost, hallucinations, copyright, bias, fairness, and transparency.

At the same time, AI can also create real benefits. It may improve efficiency, support research, expand access to information, or enable new forms of service and communication.

This discussion asks you to reflect on a concrete case in which AI creates both benefits and concerns. The goal is not to argue for one correct answer, but to examine how different values, interests, and trade-offs can come into tension.

Step 1: Identify one concrete case

Choose one real case in which AI creates both benefits and concerns.

Your example may come from news, professional practice, education, libraries, workplaces, research, or everyday life.

Examples might include:

• a data center built to support AI services, while creating environmental or community impacts
• the use of AI tools to improve productivity, while raising privacy or surveillance concerns
• AI-assisted scientific research that also raises questions about copyright, transparency, or bias
• generative AI in writing, image creation, or customer service that increases efficiency but may reduce trust or accuracy

Briefly describe:

• what the case is
• what benefits AI seems to provide in this situation
• what concerns or costs also arise

Step 2: Explain the tension or trade-off

Analyze the case by explaining what values, interests, or goals are in tension.

You may consider questions such as:

• What is gained, and what is at risk?
• Who benefits most from this use of AI?
• Who may bear the costs or harms?
• Are the benefits and burdens distributed fairly?
• Are some trade-offs more acceptable than others?

Here is not just to list pros and cons, but to explain why this case is difficult to evaluate.

Step 3: Reflect on how such cases should be judged

Discuss how cases like this should be evaluated in practice.

You may consider:

• What principles should guide judgment in cases where AI creates both benefits and concerns?
• What kinds of trade-offs seem acceptable or unacceptable to you, and why?
• What kinds of safeguards, limits, or oversight might be needed?
• What role, if any, should AI literacy, institutional policy, public input, or regulation play?

You do not need to reach a final solution. The goal is to present a thoughtful position and explain your reasoning clearly.

Expected outcome

Your post should demonstrate:

• Ability to analyze a concrete AI-related case rather than discuss concerns only in the abstract
• Understanding that AI often involves competing values, interests, and trade-offs
• Careful reasoning about how such tensions should be evaluated
• Respectful and thoughtful engagement with complexity, rather than treating the issue as having a single obvious answer