AP Computer Science Principles:: Impact Of Computing

What is a COMPUTING INNOVATION, as broadly defined in AP CSP?

- **A)** A synonym for a company's official corporate logo
- **B)** A computing innovation refers only to a brand-new type of physical computer chip
- **C)** A new or improved computing-related idea, process, or artifact (which may include hardware, software, or both) that has some form of beneficial or harmful IMPACT on how people live, work, or interact
- **D)** Computing innovations always have exclusively beneficial effects, with no possible harmful consequences

Why does AP CSP emphasize that a computing innovation can have BOTH beneficial AND harmful effects AT THE SAME TIME, rather than being purely one or the other?

- **A)** The beneficial and harmful effects of any given innovation are always exactly identical to each other
- **B)** Every computing innovation has been purely harmful, with no possible beneficial effects
- **C)** Many real computing innovations genuinely produce mixed outcomes -- benefiting some people or purposes while simultaneously creating new risks, costs, or harms for others, making a simple 'good' or 'bad' label often too simplistic
- **D)** Every computing innovation in history has been purely beneficial, with absolutely no possible negative effects

How might SOCIAL MEDIA, as a computing innovation, illustrate having BOTH beneficial and harmful effects?

- **A)** Social media has never had any beneficial effect on society under any circumstances
- **B)** Social media's effects have no actual connection to how people communicate or share information
- **C)** Social media has never had any harmful effect on society under any circumstances
- **D)** It can help people stay CONNECTED with friends/family and share information widely and quickly (beneficial), while also potentially spreading MISINFORMATION or enabling harassment (harmful) -- the SAME underlying technology producing both kinds of outcomes

What is the DIGITAL DIVIDE (revisited from Big Idea 2's data coverage), and why does it specifically fall under 'Impact of Computing' as a societal concern?

- **A)** The digital divide refers exclusively to a technical disagreement between two software engineers
- **B)** Digital divide concerns have no actual relationship to real-world opportunity or access to information
- **C)** It is the gap between those with reliable access to computing devices/the Internet and those WITHOUT such access, which is a societal concern because unequal access can limit opportunities (education, jobs, information) for those on the disadvantaged side of that gap
- **D)** Every person in the world currently has exactly equal access to computing technology, eliminating any digital divide

What are some factors that can CONTRIBUTE to the digital divide, beyond simply whether internet infrastructure physically exists in an area?

- **A)** The digital divide is caused by exactly one single factor, with no other contributing causes whatsoever
- **B)** The digital divide only exists in areas with no internet infrastructure available at all, with no other contributing factors
- **C)** Cost, education, and infrastructure have no actual relationship to whether someone has reliable computing access
- **D)** Factors such as the COST of devices/internet service, the availability of relevant DIGITAL LITERACY education, and infrastructure limitations in RURAL or lower-income areas can all contribute, not just whether a connection is technically possible

What does it mean for a computing system or algorithm to exhibit BIAS, as covered under the impact of computing?

- **A)** Bias in a computing system refers only to a hardware malfunction with no connection to how the system actually makes decisions
- **B)** Bias refers exclusively to a programmer's personal political opinions, with no technical connection to how software behaves
- **C)** The system produces systematically UNFAIR or SKEWED outcomes for certain groups of people, often as an unintended consequence of biased training data, biased design decisions, or a non-representative development process
- **D)** Every computing system and algorithm is always completely free of any possible bias

How could a FACIAL RECOGNITION system trained primarily on photos of ONE particular demographic group end up demonstrating BIAS against OTHER demographic groups?

- **A)** A system trained on one specific demographic group always performs EQUALLY well for every other demographic group, with no difference in accuracy
- **B)** Since the system LEARNED primarily from examples representing one group, it may perform noticeably LESS accurately when applied to people from OTHER groups it wasn't well-trained on, leading to more frequent errors or misidentifications for those underrepresented groups
- **C)** Facial recognition systems can never actually be trained using photographs of real people
- **D)** Training data has no actual effect on how accurately a facial recognition system performs for different groups of people

What is CROWDSOURCING's connection to identifying and potentially reducing BIAS in a computing system, such as through broad public testing or feedback?

- **A)** Involving a LARGE, DIVERSE group of people in testing or providing feedback on a system can help reveal biased or unfair behavior that a smaller, less diverse development team might not have noticed or personally experienced themselves
- **B)** Crowdsourcing has no practical relationship to identifying bias in computing systems
- **C)** Crowdsourcing always makes a system MORE biased, with no possibility of helping to identify or reduce bias
- **D)** Only the ORIGINAL development team can ever identify bias in a system they built, with outside testers never able to contribute useful feedback