Ethics, and the Future of Capitalism and AI

Course objectives and learning outcomes
Understand how AI creates value and changes firms, markets, and work.

Assess effects on competition, productivity, concentration, and value distribution.

Identify key ethical, social, and governance issues.

Discuss possible futures for capitalism in the age of AI.

Entrance requirement
No formal prerequisites are required.

A basic familiarity with business, economics, or management is helpful.

Admission and participation are subject to SOI procedures and deadlines.

Contents
Session 1, AI and the New Economic Landscape: AI as a transformative technology; the economics of data, algorithms, and platforms; competition and market concentration.

Individual exercise: analyse an AI-enabled company and discuss who benefits from adoption.

Session 2, Ethics, Governance, and Responsible Innovation: bias, fairness, transparency, and privacy; generative AI and intellectual property; emerging regulation.

Individual exercise: analyse an AI application and evaluate its ethical implications.

Session 3, AI, Inequality, and the Future of Capitalism: AI and the future of work; automation, productivity, and inequality; Universal Basic Income and other policy responses.

Final assignment, AI Stakeholder Simulation: a discussion among stakeholders on a controversial AI issue.

Teaching and learning methods and activities
Short lectures and guided discussion.

Individual exercises after each session.

Final stakeholder simulation.

Active participation and independent preparation on the topics covered.

Test and assessment criteria
Assessment: PASS / FAIL / WITHDRAWN.

Attendance is mandatory.

Active participation is expected.

Completion of the final assignment is required to pass.

Bibliography/Study materials
No single textbook is mandatory.

Recommended reading: The Alignment Problem, Brian Christian; Weapons of Math Destruction, Cathy O’Neil; The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, Shoshana Zuboff; Power and Progress, Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson; The Second Machine Age, Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee.

Additional articles, reports, and selected materials may be shared during the course.

Other information
The course language is English.

The course may be updated during delivery to reflect recent developments in AI, regulation, and markets.

Further logistical details, deadlines, or materials will be communicated through the SOI channels.

You can contact the instructor at the following e-mail address: pablo.solerbach@unitn.it

Dates