AI Courses

Departments across the University offer many related courses. Here are some examples targeted for students studying the liberal arts:

Commonly Taught Course Descriptions

PHIL 20616 Philosophical Issues in AI

Taught by several professors

This course introduces some epistemological and ethical issues broadly related to artificial intelligence and machine learning. The course begins with an introduction to the historical development and the technical basis of some contemporary AI technology. Topics may include: basics of linear algebra; machine learning; neural network; examples of contemporary AI systems. The second part of the course discusses some epistemological issues related to AI. Topics may include: the problem of induction, AI assisted scientific research; transparency and interpretability. The final part of the course discusses the interaction between AI and the human society. Topics may include: the meaningfulness of various human activities when AI's ability on them supersedes human; algorithmic fairness; predictive policing; digital labor.

Theo 20684 / CDT 20800 Artificial Intelligence and Human Flourishing

Taught by Paul Scherz

Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming society, impacting how we live as individuals and communities. This course will examine the issues raised by AI from the perspective of the Catholic understanding of the human person, Catholic theological anthropology. The course will particularly focus on how to ensure that AI promotes rather than prevents human flourishing. In the process of exploring those broad concerns, the course will address specific issues related to AI, such as whether AI could be a person, relationships with chatbots, surveillance capitalism, the implications of Catholic Social Teaching for AI, AI in warfare, bias, transhumanism, and the impacts of social media.

 

CDT 30750 Generative AI in the Wild

Taught by John Behrens and Alexi Orchard

Generative AI is a form of computing in which computer systems generate media such as text, images, sound, video, or combinations based on prompts or other information provided to the computer. These systems, including, but are not limited to, ChatGPT, Midjourney & DALLE, have been evolving rapidly and have led to extreme excitement, confusion, and fear. This course provides a survey of how to understand and use a number of these tools including explorations in prompt engineering as well as addressing issues from across the liberal arts including artistic, economic, social/psychological, educational and legal concerns and opportunities.

CDT 40711 The Future of Labor

Taught by Yong Lee

The new wave of technologies, e.g., robotics and AI will have long-lasting impacts on the labor market. Jobs will be displaced, new tasks will be created, different skills will be demanded, and new management practices will emerge. These new technologies may benefit workers unevenly, potentially increasing inequality. At the same time, new demographic challenges driven by aging will have large impacts on labor. How will these forces affect the future of labor and how should we prepare for changes in the labor market? The goal of this course is to provide students with a framework for analyzing how new technologies like robotics and AI will affect the labor market drawing largely from the economics literature. Students will analyze and describe the literature on these topics and understand the different methodologies used in the literature. Ultimately, students will build perspectives on how AI and robotics could affect jobs, occupations, the future of work, income distribution and social institutions. Students will also build perspectives on education, training, and redistribution policies that can help mitigate the labor market disruptions created by technological change. Students will collect and analyze data that can provide insights on the future of labor.

CDT 30560 AI in the 21st Century

Taught by Kate Marshall

According to several popular narratives, Artificial Intelligence is either about to be the most transformational influence on human culture since the Industrial Revolution, or an over-hyped set of diffuse technologies and systems with only superficial relation to each other. In this course, students will consider AI from several different disciplinary perspectives in order to make sense of both the narratives and the science surrounding it. These perspectives include computer science, the history of technology, philosophy, AI ethics, and science fiction. By taking up these different perspectives, students will develop vocabularies for talking about AI and, importantly, for thinking about its future.

CDT 30614 AI Auditing: An Introduction

Taught by Cam Kormylo  (offered from Mendoza College of Business)

As artificial intelligence (AI) grows increasingly pervasive in society, it is essential that we develop an understanding of how AI systems work. A vital part of this understanding is a careful consideration of various risks (e.g., the presence of bias, a lack of transparency, regulatory compliance) when AI systems are designed and deployed in real-world settings. To understand and address these concerns, this course introduces students to the fundamentals of AI auditing — the practice of evaluating and improving the ethics of AI systems. Through a combination of interactive discussions and semi-technical lab sessions, students will develop an auditing “toolkit”. This toolkit includes both theoretical and technical concepts, especially relevant for the increasingly interdisciplinary teams of the modern workforce. Students will work on group case assignments as “audit committees” that reflect the needs of a variety of stakeholders (e.g., developers, managers, investors, users). Groups will identify and discuss potential concerns or risks associated with AI systems as well as develop recommendations to address them. Overall, the course aims to provide an interdisciplinary and hands-on introduction to AI auditing, allowing students to gain insights into the opportunities and challenges associated with the design and deployment of AI systems that minimize societal risk and increase their effectiveness.

CDT 30801 Language Processing in Practice

Taught by David Smiley

Natural Language Processing (NLP) has emerged as a crucial skill in the workforce, especially with the advent and accessibility of generative AI technologies. From intelligent chatbots and virtual assistants to automated content creation and sentiment analysis, NLP applications are transforming industries and redefining how we interact with technology. Mastery of NLP techniques and tools not only opens doors to careers in the technology sector but also equips students to contribute to innovations that shape our future. Language Processing in Practice is a hands-on course designed to introduce students to the fundamental theory and applications of NLP, with a special emphasis on working with large language models, generative AI, and the Hugging Face ecosystem. The course focuses on practical techniques for processing, analyzing, generating, and understanding human language data. Students will explore key topics such as text preprocessing, tokenization, part-of-speech tagging, parsing, sentiment analysis, topic modeling, machine translation, and text generation. The curriculum places a strong emphasis on modern NLP libraries and frameworks like NLTK, spaCy, and particularly Hugging Face Transformers. Through a series of projects and assignments, students will gain experience in building NLP applications, creating word embeddings with pre-trained large language models, and generating human-like text using generative AI models. Basic proficiency in Python programming is required.

CDT 30802 Social Issues in AI Ethics

Taught by Alexi Orchard

In the last decade, the field of artificial intelligence (AI) ethics has been receiving significant attention in academic, professional, and public discourses. AI ethics research not only faces and attempts to counter a variety of sociotechnical issues relating to algorithmic decision making, mis/disinformation, and fairness, accountability and transparency, but also must reckon with broader social, political, and economic forces. To engage with these conversations, this course will introduce modern AI and technical aspects of predictive systems, discuss the underlying social and political assumptions of AI development, analyze current and future impacts of AI on humanity and the environment, and consider the significance of these conversations in everyday terms. Through the lens of AI ethics discourse, students will learn to analyze persuasive arguments, describe genres, norms, and values of communication, and understand concepts including perception, expertise, meaning making, and responsibility. Students are asked to complete oral and written communication assignments, engage in debates and discussions, and participate in experimental research-creation workshops to think critically about the AI ethics issues at hand.

CDT 40401/IIPS 40301 Digital Peacebuilding & Peace Technology

Taught by Lisa Schirch

This course explores how social media and other new technologies are profoundly reshaping the world, impacting democratic institutions, social cohesion, conflict, and the peacebuilding field. We will engage in deep-rooted analysis of technology's positive and negative impacts on society, drawing on neuroscience, psychology, political analysis, and economic research of the profit models, affordances, and designs of current technology platforms. Students will analyze the impact of digital technology on fifteen global conflicts and explore twenty spheres of digital peacebuilding. The course includes a policy analysis of proposed government regulations on technology companies. Participants will learn through case studies and policy dialogues to identify best practices for using social media to support peacebuilding.

CDT 40712 Surviving the Digital Apocalypse

Taught by Brett Robinson

The end is nigh! Who will save us from Apple or the AI replicants or the alien invasion? If you take this class, it might just be you. Do you think you have what it takes to confront the digital leviathan with its insatiable hunger for human data? If so, you will need cutting edge survival skills and friends you can trust. This course offers both in the form of radical ideas, acts of digital rebellion and real offline friendships that cannot be reduced to a group text. It also helps to know that we’ve been here before. With each new advance in human communication technology, the cultural DNA mutates and spawns new forms of art, belief, political discourse and economic power. Understanding this process is the key to surviving the upheaval. In this course, we are not optimistic or pessimistic about technology, only apocalyptic. What is being revealed and what will be required to preserve our humanity?

For more information on AI classes offered at Notre Dame, please contact newAI@nd.edu.