Belmont Professor of Physics Dr. Scott Hawley took a sabbatical in the Fall 2020 semester to write a book on Machine Learning. Part of his new book will contain interactive graphical exercises in JavaScript. Hawley recently decided to spruce up the online exercises around Christmastime to give them a humorous holiday theme.
The theme satirizes Santa’s workshop entering into a new partnership with Amazon. Amazon will use data collected from social media, fitness trackers, microphones in TV remotes, Alexa-powered Elves on the Shelves, cell phone tower connections, warrantless police drone surveillance, and more to analyze whether an individual has made the naughty or nice list.
Along the way, the lesson provides links highlighting the ethical issues of privacy, transparency and racial or gender bias in automated decision-making systems.
Visit the holiday version of the site here: https://hedges.belmont.edu/naughty/
