Understanding AI: AI Through a Technical, Socio-Ethical, and Career Development Lens

Course Description

Generative AI, large language models (LLMs) -- these buzzwords have been popping up in newsrooms, classrooms, and dinner tables. This discussion-intensive, hands-on course provides students with a foundational understanding of AI through a technical, socio-ethical, and career development lens. No prior computing or AI experience is necessary to take this course. This class will give students the opportunity to:

Week 1: Understand topics like the training process behind LLMs and apply what they learned to design their own chatbot.
Week 2: Critically evaluate the impacts of LLMs on society and design a public-facing media piece that raises awareness about their impacts and responsible use.
Week 3: Assess how LLMs might change the future of jobs by using historical events to inform future predictions. Students will develop their own 5-year plans to think about the potential careers they are interested in pursuing and the corresponding skill sets required.

Across the 3 weeks, researchers and industry professionals will visit the class to share their expertise and to help students understand how design choices, ethical considerations, and real-world motivations shape the development and impact of LLM systems.

Discussion Intensive

The majority of class time will be devoted to seminar-style learning.

Academic Interest

Technology (e.g., Computer Science, Molecular Engineering), Computer Science, Data Science, Math, and Statistics, Physical Sciences (e.g., astronomy, physics), Examining Culture and Society

Application Materials

A complete application includes a transcript, two short essays, a letter of recommendation, writing sample, application fee, and a submitted parent confirmation. If you are seeking need-based financial aid, you must indicate that in your application before it is submitted. Please refer to the Application Instructions for complete details.

Instructor(s)

Grace Li

Other Courses to Consider

These courses might also be of interest.

Introduction to Creative Coding
This course is an introduction to programming, using exercises in graphic design and digital art to motivate and employ basic tools of computation (such as variables, conditional logic, and procedural abstraction). We will write code in JavaScript and related languages and we will work with a variety of digital media, including vector graphics, raster images, animations, and web applications.
Residential
How Societies Work (or Don't) - Session 1
How do societies work? Why do they so often seem to break down and fail? Should we even expect societies to “work” as cohesive entities, or should we assume that they are always rife with conflict, inequality and power struggles?
In in this class, we will address these and other questions by taking a deep dive into different schools of social thought: materialism, which sees the production of goods and services as the force that shapes social organization; structural functionalism, which argues that society’s various parts work together to strengthen social cohesion; social action theory, which argues values, worldviews and social institutions (e.g. religion and family) shape individual activities; performance theory, which focuses on micro-relationships; and, finally, post-modernism, which avoids any over-arching theory of society.
Through these explorations, we will also address topics such as race, class, gender, technology, capitalism and modernity.
Our readings will include works by Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim, Max Weber, Michel Foucault, Judith Butler and others.
Residential
Foundations of Psychological Research
Enrollment for this course is closed. We will only admit students from the waitlist if places become available. Please make other selections for your application.
This course introduces students to the basic concepts and methods used in conducting psychological research in order to gain understanding of how science can be used to answer questions about thoughts, emotions, and behavior. Throughout the class, students will explore various research designs and how to create a research plan, reflect upon published psychological research in context, and interact with experimental psychologists. In their final projects, students will pose a research question of personal interest and design a psychological study to answer this question using elements of methods they’ve learned in the class.
Remote