Students today are being asked to engage with artificial intelligence in all aspects of their lives — in their personal lives, education and careers. But it’s a complex topic and so new that it’s difficult to understand how AI works and how it can be used responsibly.
A new class from the University of Washington Information School aims to help students across the university gain a broad understanding of AI.
Ben Lee (pictured at top), an assistant professor at the Information School, recently taught a pilot of the class, AI Fundamentals, and he will teach it again in spring quarter. The class, , is open to any undergraduate. No background in AI or coding knowledge is necessary, and it will also meet the Social Sciences requirement for general education.
“My goal with the class is to use it as an opportunity for students to feel empowered in terms of the choices they make about AI and where they see opportunities for use and also opportunities for meaningful refusal as well,” Lee said. “This class is grounded in giving students a pathway to develop their own set of values around AI and how to manifest those values professionally, personally and beyond.”
, the UW vice provost for artificial intelligence, leads the . Through that role, he is helping increase innovation and collaboration across the university while keeping focus on equitable and ethical uses of AI.
“UW’s strategy is moving toward pairing innovation with responsibility, and that starts with an informed campus community,” said Smith, a professor in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science and Engineering. “This course will help build a common language across disciplines so students can collaborate, ask better questions, and help shape how AI is used at UW and beyond.”
Lee said the Information School is in a good position to lead conversations about AI because it has long helped students not only learn to understand how technology works, but to understand its ethics and greater implications for society. The inaugural class had students with a wide range of focuses, including Informatics, law, psychology and real estate. That diversity helps students see the applications of AI from many different angles.
The course starts by demystifying AI, explaining how it works and the different ways it’s used. From there, students learn to understand how AI datasets are created, how they’re used, how they’re trained and how they work in the real world. The class then focuses on responsible AI, including understanding how AI systems can cause systemic harm. Finally, students turn to the future, in a way that Lee describes as being like speculative fiction, to create visions for what AI could become.
Lee was pleased to see that students were willing to talk openly in class about how they’re already using AI. That openness is important at a time when AI is still new and teachers and students are trying to figure out how to use it or not use it in their academic work.
“We had this environment where students were being honest about how they were using the systems,” Lee said. “That was a really good sign and a great place to continue these conversations.”
For the final assignment, Lee asked students to reimagine an AI system. He was interested by the wide variety of topics the students came up with. One student set frameworks for a beauty app that used AI to offer beauty tips in a non-judgmental way, by focusing on self-expression rather than perfection. Another student took a critical look at the use of Indigenous data in AI and how Indigenous data and sovereignty could be protected. One student created a zine to help filmmakers understand how to set standards for AI usage in all aspects of film production.
Whatever their area of expertise, students gain a broader knowledge of AI from the course, giving them the tools to think critically about AI wherever that comes up.
“Many of our graduates will enter workplaces where AI is part of the workflow,” Smith said. “The differentiator will be discernment: knowing when and how to rely on AI, when and how to verify, and when to opt out. This course helps students use new tools without being naive and take a constructive role in shaping what AI becomes in their professions.”