By Megan Robertson (Lower Sixth)
Recently, the Lovelace Society got the brilliant opportunity to hold an inter-school computer science debate. Last Thursday BGS played host to multiple schools, with BGS, BGI and Bedford School all in attendance, for what played out to be a fun evening of fruitful debate. The Lovelace Society was excited to see the excellent variety in knowledge and experience we had, ranging from Year 10s, just beginning their computer science GCSE, to the Upper Sixth students, preparing for their A Levels in the same field, to non-computer scientists, who simply came to learn and debate.
As always, the topics focused on current affairs in the world of technology, beginning with a question that has appeared in our headlines for quite some time - “Should social media be banned for under 16s?”. What followed was a lengthy debate, concerning the economic and social implications of such a ban, as well as discussion of AI in social media algorithms, which consisted of well thought out arguments and examples being employed on both sides of the debate. After nearly an hour of engaging discourse, the room came to the conclusion that social media for under 16s should not be banned in its entirety, but rather restrictions placed upon the terms of its usage.
Next, we moved on to a question that created much controversy in the room, between an almost overwhelming majority and a passionate minority, debating the existence of ethical hacking. Due to the involvement of artificial intelligence in many topics, the theme soon became prevalent yet again, with a short tangent to whether AI could ever truly be sentient, which was interesting to see, considering the prominent relevance of AI in assisting human intelligence, and simply ourselves as students. After returning back to the main subject of this debate, further questions regarding job stability in the current market for ethical hacking were raised. The majority concluded that the answer remains subjective.
The time ended with prizes being rewarded for the best debaters who had made excellent points and valuable contributions to the debates, one of which was awarded to a more than deserving BGS student. The Lovelace Society looks forward to the next event of this manner it will run, where we will get to debate a question we sadly ran out of time for on this occasion - “To what extent should we trust AI in self-driving cars to make the ‘right’ decision”.
