Governance & Ethics

of Data Analytics
BIA 5200 OLA & OGA Summer Term

Class 3
Introduction to Ethics & Decision Making Modeling
Agenda.
• Weekly Tech Ethics Dish
• Breakout: Ethics Group Challenge
• Review: Methods
• New: Model for Moral Reasoning
• Break
• Second Group Case: Lampposts & the IoT
• Round 1 Breakout
• Debrief
• Round 2 Breakout
• Debrief
• Group Assignment 1
 Weekly Tech Ethics Dish.

• A nationwide baby formula shortage in the US has birthed s shady online marketplace.
(MIT Tech Review, 2022)

• Elon Musk puts a hold on his deal to purchase of Twitter over bots – accuses current CEO
of lying (less than 5% of 200 million accounts are fake in SEC filings) (NYT, 2022)

• Audit of the official @POTUS account show that 49% of followers are fake. Audit of the
Donald Trump’s archived @POTUS45 account shows 42.4% of followers are fake.
(Daily Mail, 2022)

• Cryptocurrency market meltdown ($300+ billion wiped off total value) and the sentiment
is that it is not over (Yahoo.Finance 2022)

• Activision Blizzard shareholders vote in favour of the 70 billion dollar deal (

(Business Wire, 2022)
Ethics Group Challenge

Topic:
Elon Musk buying Twitter & then taking it private. Is
this a good thing or not?

Are you for or against? Why?

Half of groups argue “for”

Half of groups argue “against”

Face-off in 25 minutes. Each team gets 3 min max.

Review.
 Consequentialism.
Only the consequences of your actions should matter
in your calculations.

Source: Moldoveanu,M.2014.
 Contractarianism.
Judges the morality of an action based on the implicit and explicit
contracts that the agents have willfully entered into.

Source: Moldoveanu,M.2014.
 Deontology.
Judges the morality of an action based on rules and duty.

Source: Moldoveanu,M.2014.
 End-Statism.
Only the end-states of a sequence of actions count.

Source: Moldoveanu,M.2014.
 Rawlsian Liberalism.
Choices that affect others should be made under a ‘veil of ignorance’
regarding whether or not you will be one of those ‘others’.

Source: Moldoveanu,M.2014.
 Utilitarianism.
Act in ways that maximize the total collective utility of your actions.

Source: Moldoveanu,M.2014.
 Virtues-Based.
Choices are made that affect others in a way that is maximally virtuous.

Source: Moldoveanu,M.2014.
 Agents

Modeling
Choices
Toolkit for
Moral
Consequences & Outcomes
Reasoning
Utility Value

Payoffs, Beliefs & Expectations

Source: Moldoveanu,M.2014.
 Model of Moral Reasoning: Definitions

Agents A unit of moral choice. Agents can be active or passive.

Irreversible commitment to one of several possible, alternate, mutually

Choices incompatible courses of action. Choice assigns responsibility.

Consequences
Events that are causally linked to one’s actions. Can be intended or unintended.
& Outcomes

Utility Value The utility of an outcome is the value an agent assigns to it.

Payoffs, Beliefs Cost and benefits of the outcomes of a choice. Agents make choices based on
& Expectations their beliefs and expectations about the outcomes.

Source: Moldoveanu,M.2014.
 Model for Moral Reasoning: Building Blocks

• An agent is the person who makes choices and can value the consequences of the
actions that are consistent with those choices (i.e. Is a “unit of moral choice”).

• When modeling a predicament, we represent humans as agents that are capable of

deciding and choosing among different courses of action. It is possible for an agent
Agents to represent a group, firm or institution.

• Must distinguish between active and passive agents

• Active agents: those whose choices will impact their own and others’ welfare.
• Passive agents: those whose welfare will be impacted by the choice of the active
agent.

Source: Moldoveanu,M.2014.
 Model for Moral Reasoning: Building Blocks

• “An irreversible commitment to one of several possible, alternative, mutually

incompatible courses of action”

• A choice is about behaviour, it is not about thinking, feeling or deciding.

Choices • Choice assigns responsibility for a set of outcomes that are the consequences of the
behaviour that was chosen.

• “Choice” relies on alternatives (or options): which are choosable courses of action, or
different things you could do or select.

Source: Moldoveanu,M.2014.
 Model for Moral Reasoning: Building Blocks

• The consequences of a choice are events that are causally linked to the actions an
agent undertakes as a result of making that choice.

• The outcome of a choice an agent makes is causally linked to choices others make as
Consequences a result of the active agent’s choice..
& Outcomes

• Consequences and outcomes may be intended or unintended.

• Careful of the “I did not know” common defense of executives.

Source: Moldoveanu,M.2014.
 Model for Moral Reasoning: Building Blocks

• The utility of an outcome is the value that an agent assigns to it.

• This value could be monetary, but need not be.

• It could be freedom, power…etc.

Utility Value
• The utility function allows us to describe how agents trade off the value of one
“good” versus another.

• Ex: extra salary or extra vacation. Which one has greater utility value for you?

Source: Moldoveanu,M.2014.
 Model for Moral Reasoning: Building Blocks

• Payoffs are the costs and benefits of the outcomes of a choice.

• Utilities indicate the value that an agent places on a set of outcomes. Payoffs are the
actual “values”.
• Payoffs are specific to agents and specifically measurable and knowable by
individuals.
Payoffs, beliefs • Beliefs and expectations represent that fact that choices and decisions are future
& expectations oriented. e.g.: their consequences may not be directly observable in the present.
• Agents make choices based on their beliefs or expectations about the outcomes of
their choices.
• Agents weigh the payoffs associated with the outcomes of their choices by their
beliefs about the likelihood these outcomes will indeed come to pass.

Source: Moldoveanu,M.2014.
 Instructions: Modelling framework in a nutshell

Map the active agents in the situation: who make choices. (ie: they have reason, right and
Agents opportunity to to choose). Map the passive agents in the situation who, other than the active
agents, are affected by the consequences of the choices the active agents make.

Choices Map the choices the active agents make. What could they do/have done?

Consequences Map the potential consequences and outcomes of the different choices the active agents make.
& Outcomes What are their beliefs regarding the possible outcomes and their likelihoods?

Map the utilities and values of the active and passive agents: what do they care about, and what do
Utility Value they value?

Payoffs, Beliefs Map the payoffs: how are the things that active and passive agents value affected by the outcomes
& Expectations of the choices the agents make?

Source: Moldoveanu,M.2014.
 Active Agent (s):

Passive Agents (s):

Choices

Consequences & Outcomes

Utility Value
Case 2:
Smart Lampposts & the IoT
Smart Lampposts & the IoT, Round 1
1. Who are the active and passive agents involved in the development,
deployment, and use of these smart lampposts?

2. What are the ethical issues you see with installing smart lampposts in cities?

3. Do these issues differ from city to city? (please explain)

4. How might the deployment of smart lampposts be evaluated through the lens of
Consequentialism, Utilitarianism, Rawlsian Liberalism?
Debrief.
 Smart Lampposts & the IoT, Round 2

1. Now that you have identified the active agents, what are their potential choices?

2. What are the consequences and outcomes (intended & unintended) of the
choice (s) that the active agent (s) made in this case?

3. What do the active agents and the passive agents care about? What do they
value?

4. What are the payoffs, beliefs and expectations of the agents? (how are the
things that the active and passive agents value affected by the outcomes of the
choices they make?)
Debrief.
Group Assignments