What might happen socially when AI systems are deployed broadly? (effects on work, education, creativity, …)
How can AI systems be aligned with human values? What are the risks if they aren’t?
How might we design AI systems to align with human values? to honor each other and our neighbors?
How do privacy and copyright relate with AI?
What is creativity? Agency? Truth?
Key objectives
These courses will present students with opportunities to explore a variety of types of broader contexts and implications of AI. Students will generally choose two specific areas of depth. Areas include:
Philosophical and Theological: I can identify and discuss relevant theological narratives and philosophical questions. (Overall: what does it mean to be human?)
Social, Organizational, and Legal: I can identify societal implications of AI technologies and recall relevant facts. I can deeply analyze real-world problems to identify how AI could be used or misused in those situations. I can evaluate specific design and evaluation choices in AI systems’ based on how they relate to human contexts (organizations, societies, etc.) in which those systems might operate.
Dispositional and Visionary: I can identify and demonstrate strategies that support my practice of dispositions such as integrity, humility, meticulousness, creativity, responsibility, perseverance / continuous technical learning / growth mindset. I can envision value-aligned technological futures involving AI. Practically, I can use generative AI in ways that honor others, help me think better, and help me serve others better.
Historical: I can trace current AI technologies and ways of thinking back to origins and developments of at least a decade ago.
At a minimum, I should at least be able to:
Recognize when an AI system under consideration has impacts on people and flag the need for expert analysis.
Explain basic AI concepts to a non-technical audience without major errors.
Identify, in general sense, some ways in which reformed Christian concepts apply to AI development and deployment. Specific examples might include: shalom, humanity in the image of God, and the creation-fall-redemption-restoration narrative.
Specific topics may include:
sustainability (energy usage of data center construction and operation, …)
impacts on relationships and social interactions
privacy and surveillance; data collection and aggregation
Human-AI interaction (over-reliance, resilience to errors, paradoxes of automation)
recommendation systems and the economies of attention and intention
impacts on education
perception, categorization, and algorithmic decision-making
intellectual property and legal considerations around Generative AI