Raising AI Ethics Awareness: Insights from a Quiz-Based Workshop with Software Practitioners - An Experience Report

Today, with the increasing prevalence of artificial intelligence (AI) systems, there is an increasingly critical need to integrate AI ethics into system design to prevent societal harm. Raising awareness and fostering a deep understanding of AI ethics among software practitioners is essential for achieving this goal. However, research indicates a significant gap in practitioners' awareness and knowledge of AI ethics and ethical principles. While much effort has been directed toward helping practitioners operationalise AI ethical principles such as fairness, transparency, accountability, and privacy, less attention has been paid to raising initial awareness, which should be the foundational step. Addressing this gap, we had developed a software-based tool, the AI Ethics Quiz (quiz), and in this study, we introduced the quiz to 29 software practitioners through one-hour workshops (some in-person and some online). In order to get a sense of how practitioners respond to the quiz, we collected the data through a pre-quiz questionnaire, the quiz, and a post-quiz questionnaire. The anonymous responses revealed that the quiz was perceived as helpful in enhancing practitioners' awareness and understanding of AI ethics. Additionally, practitioners found the quiz engaging and reported that it created a meaningful learning experience regarding AI ethics. In this paper, we share our experience of conducting these interactive workshops and introducing the AI Ethics Quiz to software practitioners. We also provide recommendations for software companies and leaders to adopt similar initiatives, which may help them enhance practitioners' awareness and understanding of AI ethics.