INFO 3170

Understanding AI and Society

Course Description

Course information provided by the 2026-2027 Catalog.

This course examines how recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) technologies shape - and are shaped by - society. We will consider the role of AI across sectors including employment, medicine, mental health, education, and democracy, as well as across social functions including trust, privacy, autonomy, accountability, and fairness. We will move beyond simple sensationalist narratives for or against AI, and examine how different social science disciplines produce empirically-grounded studies of the impacts of AI. The course compares quantitative behavioral-social science (e.g., measurement, causal inference, surveys/experiments, audits and fairness metrics) with qualitative and interpretive approaches (e.g., ethnographic and historical studies, policy analysis, and critical perspectives from STS, law, and philosophy) to provide students with a broad toolkit through which to ask questions and evaluate emerging and future developments. Students will learn to reason about, and assess evidence related to, responsible development, deployment, and governance of AI in a variety of societal contexts.

Last 4 Terms Offered (None)

Learning Outcomes

• Analyze claims about AI’s social impacts, including assessing uncertainty and limitations.
• Identify the strengths and weaknesses of quantitative (e.g., causal inference, surveys/experiments, audits) and qualitative (e.g., case analysis, ethnography) methods for studying AI.
• Evaluate policy or design recommendations for specific AI deployments in an evidence-based manner.
• Differentiate between the impact of AI on different social groups and appropriateness for its use in different sectors.

View Enrollment Information