SM 451: Seminar Ethical AI (FSS 2026)

The seminar reflects on ethical requirements of AI applications. The seminar is for BSc students only.

Course language: in case all participants speak German, the seminar will be held in German, otherwise, the language will be English.

The seminar will take place in person, remote participation is not possible.

• This seminar is organized by Prof. Dr. Heiko Paulheim.
• Available for BSc students (2 SWS, 5 ECTS).
• Prerequisites: There are no formal requirements, but students should have basic knowledge of and interest in Artificial Intelligence.

In this seminar, you will

• Read, understand, and explore technical and scientific literature, as well as literature on ethical standards
• Write a short exposé and a concise report (10 single-column pages + references)
• Give an oral presentations (20 minutes)
• Review reports of a fellow students

• Registration until February 9th
• Attend the kickoff meeting on Monday, February 16th, 13:45
• Pick a set of topics until Friday, February 20th
• Prepare a presentation and present during a slot in the scheminar schedule assigned to you.
  • Presentations are on Mondays, 13:45–15:15
• Prepare and submit a final report until Friday, June 12th (earlier submission encouraged and possible)

The goal of the seminar is to analyze a particular application of AI technology along ethical guidelines.

To this end, you will

1. Pick an application area.
2. Find commercial solutions and/or research prototypes in this area.
3. Analyze them along given ethical evaluation frameworks.

In the presentation and report, you should

1. describe the application area (this should be about 1/3)
2. explain your findings regarding relevant ethical issues (this should be about 2/3)

The following links may help you identify potential application areas:

• https://research.aimultiple.com/ai-usecases/
• https://offers.hubspot.com/view/creative-ai-use-cases
• https://www.devoteam.com/expert-view/100-gen-ai-use-cases/
• https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/infrastructure-and-cloud/google-cloud/gen-ai-business-use-cases/

Relevant ethical guidelines:

• The EU AI Act: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/headlines/society/20230601STO93804/eu-ai-act-first-regulation-on-artificial-intelligence
• Ethics guidelines for trustworthy AI by the HLEG: https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/ethics-guidelines-trustworthy-ai
• Assessment List for Trustworthy AI by the HLEG: https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/assessment-list-trustworthy-artificial-intelligence-altai-self-assessment
• UNESCO Guidelines for Ethical AI: https://www.unesco.org/en/artificial-intelligence/recommendation-ethics