Semester:
Offered:
If we’re living through the emergence of a highly disruptive technology, namely Chat-GPT and similar generative AI tools, what should we do about it?
Christopher Stubbs & Logan S. McCarty
Generative artificial intelligence (GAI) systems such as Chat-GPT have caught the entire world off-guard. They are evolving at a pace that is overwhelming the ability of individuals, organizations, and societies to understand, adjust to, and regulate them. Current-generation GAI tools can write narrative and music, can generate original art, and can write computer programs, all from natural language requests. This class will help you understand the basics of how these generative AI systems work under the hood, and will teach you how to (guardedly) bring them to bear on problems that interest you. We will explore a range of AI applications across the domain of liberal arts and science, and will illustrate ways in which we can harness GAI to enhance learning. We will pay particular attention to the limitations and pitfalls of these tools, both technical and ethical. We will also explore the likely impact this disruptive technology will have on the economy and the challenges it poses to sustaining a participatory democracy.