From the course: Ethics and Law in Data Analytics

Data ethics and law in business

From the course: Ethics and Law in Data Analytics

Data ethics and law in business

- In our previous module we had talked about how data relates to the individual and society. And issues and opportunities around bias and privacy had come up. But as we move in this module towards more about businesses and actual corporate entities, I can only imagine how those become more impactful and important to discuss. So Eva, Nathan, could you tell us about this module and what students are going to learn? - Yeah, sure, absolutely. In this we're going to be turning our attention from individuals in society to businesses as the dominant player in artificial intelligence and data analytics. And we'll see that unlike the earlier modules where we're looking at law in general and sources of law, the Constitution and statutes and case law, here we're really looking at regulation. At least in the legal perspective, we're looking at how is business regulated in data analytics and artificial intelligence? So we'll look at some US laws that apply, we'll look at European law that applies, and also see how there's some conflict because the law predates all of this technology. So we've got that ongoing theme of how does the law going to be interpreted with respect to these new technologies? - Got it. Yes, as well as regulation we have this other side of press responsibility, right? Of what not only companies shouldn't or should do from a legal perspective, but what are they actually called to do as an organization? So-- - Yeah, great transition to Nathan and to the ethical frameworks because what we call corporate responsibility or corporate social responsibility or corporate citizenship even is looking at more than what the law is going to require. Remember that the law is the moral minimum. It sets a minimal standard for the businesses. But what Nathan's going to be teaching in this course, in this module of the course, is actually speaking more to the responsibility side. - Got it. - Yeah this such a huge and interesting topic. It is, you can't overestimate how important this is. So we have this discipline business ethics, it's near and dear to my heart, it's the class I teach the most, and the way people think about business, is all about greed and exploitation. And they think about ethics as being kind and they're like, "How can business ethics, how do those two words even go together?" But it turns out lots of interesting ways, that's not a very good way to understand business or ethics. So we talked about the five specific ethical values and it turns out that trust and character excellence, but now it's translated as culture excellence, turn out to be very important for ethics at an organizational level. And what's definitely true is that there's lots of moving pieces with business but every one of those pieces is totally being transformed by data and AI. So it is very important to have these conversations and this was my favorite module to work on with you guys. This is very important conversation and I hope this gets people thinking. - [Eva] Yeah. - Excellent. Thank you both. And we look forward to joining you. Thank you.

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