AI in Society Minor

How does artificial intelligence impact society? In this course, we will examine how AI and related algorithmic technologies shape, and are shaped by, societal issues and factors. We will critically examine historical and contemporary research and applications of AI from social, cultural, and policy perspectives. Students will encounter a variety of perspectives from science and technology studies, the humanities, and the social sciences and use real-world cases in order to analyze how AI technologies may differentially impact people, communities, and societies. Lecture 3 (Spring).

Science Technology and Values explores the concepts and effects of science and technology on society, and analyzes the relationship between science and technology, asking questions such as: How each has come to play a major role today, and how have science and technology affected and been affected by human values, despite longstanding assumptions that science and technology are value-free? Environmental aspects of science and technology will also be examined from interdisciplinary perspectives. Key themes include the practical and theoretical relationships between science, technology, and power. Lecture 3 (Fall, Spring).

STP eExamines how local, state, federal and international policies are developed to influence innovation, the transfer of technology and industrial productivity in the United States and other selected nations. It provides a framework for considering the mechanisms of policy as a form of promotion and control for science and technology, even once those innovations are democratized and effectively uncontrollable. Further focus is dedicated to the structure of governance inherent in U.S. domestic policy, limits of that approach, the influences of international actors, and utilizing case studies to demonstrate the challenges inherent in managing differing types of technology. Lecture 3 (Fall).

Technology has an impact on every aspect of our social lives. With each advance, unanticipated problems emerge, leading to complex debates about addressing the negative consequences. This course highlights the social, ethical, and humanistic challenges of assorted technologies, past and present. We will investigate how various technologies developed and compare the expected effects of the new technologies with the actual results. Lecture 3 (Fall, Spring).

Disasters represent a disruption to daily life, with technological disasters defined as disasters resulting from human-made causes, where failures in modern technology create both acute and ongoing dangers for communities. This course focuses on how human technological advances can have adverse impacts on the communities those innovations are meant to improve. Through an investigation of technological systems and case-specific technologies, combined with ecological, social, and political systems, the causes, consequences, and long-term implications of technological disasters are considered. The course will examine cases that range from the actual to the anticipated, such as the New Orleans levee failures, Flint water crisis, Dalkon shield contraception, large-scale networked hacks, CRISPR-created and/or naturally-occurring superviruses, voting poll technology failures, and AI, in the context of the societal systems of modern industrial capitalism. Special attention will be paid to aspects of social vulnerability which make the impacts of technological disasters different for various sub-populations within their respective communities. Lecture 3 (Biannual).

We are not alone. With Artificial Intelligence, Smart Technologies, and advances in medical, workplace, and in-home robotics, humans have entered an era in which social relationships with robots is an everyday occurrence. Robots as pets, caregivers, and friends are marketed to old and young alike with the anticipation that some form of relationship will be built between person and robot. But what does it mean to have a robotic companion? Can they be programmed to care for us, and even love us? Are our social connections with these robots “real” or “authentic” or are they misplaced hopes of connection? What can, and should, they do? Ethical questions emerge when exploring the uses of robot assistants with vulnerable populations in medical settings including care of elderly dementia patients and neurodivergent minors. Social considerations of trust and misuse of data are also hotly debated. What should the robot do and what should it not do? This is the world of social robotics. For robots to live among “us” and help define “us” how should they act and how should we react in return? This course examines Social Robotics by offering a survey of topics necessary to better understand the world of human-robot relations and ponders what futures we are building with robot companions. Topics to be discussed may include robot rights, Lovotics, authenticity, electronic personalities, and the Uncanny Valley. This course fulfills Ethical Perspectives and Social Perspectives. Lecture 3 (Spring).

Yes, you are being watched. In this course, we consider how surveillance technologies permeate all areas of life for humans, animals, and robots. From smart houses that are always listening, to tracking devices for wildlife research, or networked AI-enhanced robots, the role of surveillance is an under-examined constant in post-millennium life. Whether surveilled by government agencies for social control, private corporations for profit, family members for safety, or friends and the public for amusement, the power dynamics of how surveillance data are gathered, stored, managed, and distributed reveal new social and ethical relationships, while also reinforcing pre-existing patterns of bias and inequality. The ethical impacts of surveillance technologies press the limits of civil society, privacy assumptions, and even animal rights, when gathering and storing data without consent or among vulnerable populations. In this course, you will discover the promises and perils of surveillance technology by applying insights from STS (science and technology studies) and other interdisciplinary fields. Lecture 3 (Fall).

In this course, students will examine the ways in which “nature,” broadly conceived, has been quantified, standardized, and in many cases commodified in the modern West – often in the context of the natural sciences, government bureaucracies, capitalist markets, or some combination of the three. Reading and discussing broadly across history, science studies, anthropology, philosophy, and ecology, students will gain multidisciplinary perspectives on modern informational thinking, and develop analytical tools for assessing contemporary issues related to the quantified environment. Lecture 3 (Biannual).

The developing cybernetic organism or cyborg challenges traditional concepts of what it means to be human. Today medical science and science fiction appear to merge in ways unimagined a century ago. By exploring scientific and cultural theories, science fiction, and public experience, this class examines the history and potential of the cyborg in Western cultures. Lecture 3 (Spring).

The course provides a basic introduction to the application of computation in the research and practice of the humanities, arts, and social sciences. The class offers students entry to work with archival theory and practice; textuality and electronic scholarly communication; data mining, analysis, and visualization; the spatial and temporal “turns;” game studies and digital arts. The course offers hands on experimentation with software platforms available to create scholarly and artistic production and theoretical approaches to digital presentation. Students will complete assignments requiring conceptual, aesthetic, and practical approaches to digital engagement with cultural materials. While no programming knowledge is required, students will design and create an online project using tools and platforms that are considered standard practice in the field, and reflect critically on the utility of digital techniques in their dialogue with the humanities. Lecture 3 (Fall).

The course will examine various contemporary and global issues of digital citizenship and new ethical challenges raised by digital technology. The course will raise questions regarding how digital technology has changed citizenship practices: Who has access to full citizenship, and why? What responsibilities are entailed in digital citizenship? Themes may include the nature and value of digital technology; the relations between digital technologies and knowledge-making/meaning-making; the value of information privacy; the role of digital media in society and human interactions; issues arising from the life-cycle of new digital tools and data repositories; and questions broadly related to questions of accessibility, representation, and sustainability as applied to digital technologies. Topics may also include research ethics, piracy and file sharing, hacktivism, copyright and fair use, end-user license agreements, alternative news media, and participatory culture. Students will take up both broad ethical issues and specific professional codes and policy in diverse domains. Lecture 3 (Spring).

A critical examination/practicum in an area of digital humanities not covered in other digital humanities and social sciences courses. Counts as a program elective for the DHSS degree program, and may be taken as a general education elective if approved by the general education committee. Lecture 3 (Biannual).

Technology is a ubiquitous and defining force in our world. This course investigates how our conceptions of technology have emerged within philosophy, as well as the role technology plays in shaping how we live and how we reflect upon questions of meaning and value in life. Technological modes of understanding, organizing and transforming the world shape our relationships with others, with ourselves and with nature at fundamental levels. We will explore how these modes have emerged and why they emerged so predominantly within a Western social and intellectual context. Lecture 3 (Fall).

This course examines the political promises and challenges of artificial intelligence (AI) through the consideration of the technological trajectories and possible scenarios of advanced AI. Possible discussion topics may include: The compatibility of AI with the political principles of liberty, equality, and the pursuit of happiness to understanding what an AI arms race between countries might entail. Domestically, will the prospect of greater job automation produce mass unemployment with severe consequences? Globally, will the weaponization of AI make going to war easier? Questions like these are inherently political and the movement toward greater AI capabilities raises the more general question of whether humanity will be able to regulate, both domestically and globally, a technology that promises to surpass all technology that has gone before it. This course will seek to anticipate and prepare for the risks that advanced AI poses to domestic and global politics. The goal will be to think about how advanced AI can be prudentially oriented toward beneficial practices for the sake of the political good. Lecture 3 (Spring).

The advent of text-to-image generative AI models has upended longstanding assumptions about the human labor and social impact of visual art. Questions about veracity, originality, and intellectual property, however, are not new to visual culture. This course will connect visual practices rooted in ideas of automation and computation to current debates about artificial intelligence and its practical/ethical implications for human creativity. We will focus on contemporary art and design practices from the 1950s to the present, such as conceptual art, new media art (e.g., video, digital, and computer art), generative art, and algorithmic art, as well as the emergence of computer-aided software, rapid prototyping, and other automated approaches to design. Studying how artists and designers have tackled such issues as authorship, collaboration, open sourcing, and appropriation will underpin our efforts to envision informed, ethically sound approaches to AI-generated image making. In addition to class discussions and debates, experimental activities employing text-to-image models will be a central component of the course. Lecture 3 (Fall or Spring).