AI, Job Opportunities and Ethics

In the name of Allah the most Beneficent and Merciful 

A couple of days ago I recommended a student of mine to a very dear friend of mine (Dr. Mohammad Zubair, a very dedicated alim) for an entry level IT position in his organization. The feedback I got from Dr. Zubair was far from flattering. The problem was not lack of technical skill, but ethical. My student lied about his projects. The IT members of Dr. Zubair’s team were of the opinion that they can teach and enhance the technical abilities of someone but cannot fix the ethical shortcomings of a person.

You may ask what does this has to do with AI? Plenty. Everyone knows that AI is

best at automating routine jobs like writing entry level code. What AI lacks is ethics and that is what more and more employers are looking for. In the world of fake images, fake videos, fake news, fake….. ordinary people, not just employers are looking of authenticity. We may be temporarily mesmerized by an AI generated image but we know it is fake. We want authentic, real people with authentic, real personalities, not fakes. For this reason, it is more important now than before, that our young generation look into their own selves, identify short coming and rectify those.

Having highlighted the responsibility of our students I must admit that it is not solely their responsibility. We, the teachers, bear as much if not more, responsibility for this situation. Teaching courses on ethics is not going to rectify the situation. ChatGPT have consumed all the literature ever written on ethics but it is as ethical as a brick in a wall. If we are not ethical no amount of lecturing/courses can make our students ethical.