Professional Standards & Ethics Flashcards

An ML team is evaluating two models: Model A achieves higher overall accuracy, while Model B has more equitable performance across demographic groups. According to fairness ethics, which factor should be the deciding consideration?

Answer: The deployment context and potential for disparate harm should guide the decision

The appropriate fairness criterion depends on context — high-stakes decisions affecting vulnerable populations may require prioritizing equitable performance.

What does 'informed consent' require when collecting data from human subjects for ML research?

Answer: Subjects must understand what data is collected, how it will be used, and voluntarily agree

Informed consent requires disclosure of data use, comprehension by the subject, and voluntary agreement without coercion.

A deployed ML model begins producing biased outputs after a data distribution shift. Who holds PRIMARY ethical responsibility for monitoring and correcting this?

Answer: The organization that deployed and operates the model

The deploying organization bears ongoing accountability for the model's real-world impact, including post-deployment monitoring and correction.

A researcher wants to publish a vulnerability found in a widely-used open-source ML library. The MOST ethical approach following responsible disclosure is to:

Answer: Notify the library maintainers privately first and allow time to patch before public disclosure

Responsible disclosure involves notifying maintainers first to allow remediation before the vulnerability is made public, balancing transparency with harm reduction.

Which of the following BEST illustrates a conflict of interest for an ML practitioner?

Answer: Evaluating a model built by a vendor in which the practitioner holds equity

Holding financial interest in a vendor while objectively evaluating that vendor's product creates a material conflict of interest.

The principle of 'privacy by design' in ML systems requires that:

Answer: Privacy protections are integrated into the system architecture from the earliest design stage

Privacy by design mandates proactive embedding of privacy safeguards throughout the entire development lifecycle, not as an afterthought.

A client requests that an ML practitioner build a system to infer employees' political beliefs from social media data. The practitioner should FIRST:

Answer: Refuse and explain the serious ethical and legal risks of such profiling

Political belief inference for employment purposes raises severe ethical, legal, and civil liberties concerns that practitioners must not enable, regardless of client demand.