Universities rolling out computer ethics courses

In the wake of fake news and other troubles at tech companies, universities are hustling to bring more morality to computer science.

This semester, Harvard University and MIT are jointly offering a new course on the ethics and regulation of artificial intelligence, while the University of Texas at Austin just introduced a course titled “Ethical Foundations of Computer Science.”

The idea is to train the next generation of technologists and policymakers to consider the ramifications of innovations — like autonomous weapons or self-driving cars — before those products go on sale.