Most of the graphics class covers "core graphics" topics such as rendering and animation. While still relevant today, the active research in the field is focused on emerging areas that we will not cover in depth. In this group assignment, you will research one of these areas and their ethical implications, and create a short, but well-documented report on your findings. You must be prepared to discuss your group's work During the Emerging Ethical Issues Presentation day, where the class will have a large scale debate on these issues. The four broad topic areas are as follows:

1. "The metaverse": massively multi-user persistent virtual (or mixed-reality) worlds and the content that populates it (perhaps digital twins of real-world locations; perhaps procedurally-generated; perhaps user-created).

2. Video manipulation and editing algorithms, including DeepFakes, neural re-rendering, video synthesis from text descriptions, and other techniques for synthesizing novel videos.

3. Virtual humans: creating digital avatars from real human data; portrait filters and beautification algorithms; populating virtual worlds with compelling human characters.

4. Algorithms for democratizing design and manufacturing, including 3D and 4D-printing, knitting and weaving, architecture, fashion (virtual try-on), and related applications.

These topics are intended as a starting point for your group's discussions. Feel free to interpret these topics broadly.

Written Report

Please prepare a written report (as a group) covering each of the facets of analysis described below. I am imposing a limit of a maximum of one page per facet (so: five pages total for the whole report). The specific questions listed below are only suggestions; you don't have to answer them all if you have nothing to say. The page limit is a maximum only: you will not be penalized for being concise so long as you thoroughly and thoughtfully cover each facet. Note that figures do not count toward the page limit.

You will also need to include a bibliography as extra pages that do not count against the page limit. All sources are permitted (including Wikipedia, Twitter threads, YouTube videos, etc.) but you should take into account the authority and credibility of all sources during your research. We expect that a thorough exploration of your topic area will need to include at least a few academic research papers.

• Context: what is the history of these ideas and technologies? What previous work does it build on and what has been the impact and influence of that work? Why is your topic a focus of attention today? Have there been scientific breakthroughs or inventions that made the topic suddenly relevant? Social, economic, or political changes?

• State of the Art: what is currently possible and what are people working on? What grand challenges have recently been solved and what grand challenges remain? How are people trying to solve them? Are the main barriers theoretical? Or practical (scaling up proofs of concept; deploying to a large audience; etc)? Or social?

• Applications and Positive Impacts: how will this technology benefit society, in the short- and long-term? In what ways will it improve our daily lives? Disrupt existing industries? Enable new products or inventions? What other areas of science and computer science stand to benefit from advances in your topic area?

• Negative Impacts: are there dangers or harms associated with the technology? What are the implications of the technology in terms of today's societal issues, such as climate and the environment; race, gender, and wealth inequality; and physical and mental health and social wellbeing? How can the technology cause harm, both when intentionally abused, and as a side-effect of intended use? Are there disparities in who will benefit from the technology? Might it perpetuate or deepen existing inequalities? What are the public policy implications of the technology? Are any harms already evident today?

• Analysis: Where the above sections should be cited and present a clear, logical argument, in this section you are free to speculate and offer your opinions (which can have supporting citations, but we will not require them as stringently as in the previous sections). Do you feel like your topic area is overhyped or underhyped? Are important potential impacts and applications flying under the radar? Are potential harms being neglected, and if so, what measures do you recommend for mitigating them? If you had the power to influence the field’s direction (as a government grant administrator, venture capitalist, or big tech CTO, for instance) which aspects of your topic area would you encourage and which would you discourage?

In-Class Group Debate

We will have two days, both with mandatory attendance, where the class will participate in a debate across all four topics. This leaves around only 25 minutes per topic, so this will not be a full report. Instead, I will moderate a friendly discussion on the topics, where both students who researched that topic, and students who did not, can weigh in on the topic. You will not be graded on your insights during the debate, but attendance is mandatory and will greatly affect your participation grade for the semester.

Collaboration Report

It is fine for different group members to focus on different parts of the assignment (helping write the report vs. organizing citations and ideas, etc.) but I expect all team members to contribute roughly equal effort. You will need to submit a collaboration report explaining what each person contributed to the team (including an evaluation of your own performance). You are free to discuss you and your teammates' technical contributions as well as their soft skills, such as leadership, time management, teamwork, etc. If a teammate fails to contribute to the project, they will receive a heavy grade penalty on this assignment.

Grading

Your group will be assigned a holistic grade based on your written report. Except as adjusted in response to the information in your collaboration reports, all team members will receive the same grade. We will evaluate your work based on the following rubric:

• A: The research delves deeply into the assigned topic area, and covers not only the obvious ongoing research, applications, and implications, but unearths lesser-known projects currently flying under the radar, and draws surprising connections to applications within and without computer science. The written report is polished and professional, and covers each of the five facets described above thoroughly, thoughfully, and with nuance, with well-structured arguments substantiated using facts drawn from the research materials.
• B: Although missing the depth or thoroughness of A work described above, the written report is nevertheless a compelling exploration of the assigned topic area's "big picture," and makes it clear that the group has done thorough and thoughtful research.
• C: The research is superficial and does not extend much farther than what one would learn from a single popular science or Wikipedia article. The written report may also be sloppy, poorly-written, incoherent, or asserts claims unsubstantiated by any sources.

Note on ChatGPT

Since ChatGPT, with some coaxing, can write a decent C-level paper (or a weak B-level paper), if I suspect you of using LLMs to bypass the actual writing process, you will receive a 0 on the assignment. You and your group will then need to schedule a meeting with me where you will give an oral analysis of your work to explain your ideas, how you came to them, and what the deeper societal implications of these are. I will then base your final grade on the oral analysis in conjunction with what was written in the paper.