Admission requirements
Enrolled in the Media Technology MSc programme, or in the Human-Centred Artificial Intelligence track of the Computer Science : Artificial Intelligence MSc specialisation
Description
With the rapid development of AI technologies, many are concerned about their impact on the world. This course explores the questions of social and technological change, ethics and the responsibilities associated with it, and invites students to speculatively re-imagine the kind of world and AI technologies we would like to have.
AI in Society offers a critical, societal perspective on artificial intelligence and explores how technical decisions concerning data, methods, and tools affect individuals and communities worldwide in many different ways.
The course broadens the traditional technical approach to AI by integrating social, political, and environmental aspects as essential components of comprehending AI technologies. Using this approach will enable students to understand better the complex relationship between social and technological change and consequently examine questions of responsibility and ethics in a more comprehensive way.
This course will provide analytical tools for how to think about the impact of AI, and invite the students to apply them to diverse industries and social fields, ranging from healthcare to creative industries, from military to food production. At the conclusion of the course, students will be tasked with creatively re-imagining the potential of AI in various social contexts through a hands-on project, prompting them to contemplate whether this could pave the way for a different world.
Course objectives
After finishing the course, students will be able to:
Reason about technology in a broader way, including historical, sociopolitical, cultural and environmental aspects.
Apply this understanding of technology to reason more holistically about the ethical implications of AI technologies.
Analyse social and technological change with an eye for complexity by illustrating how they inform each other.
Explain and give examples of common social critique of how contemporary AI systems are discussed, developed and deployed.
Assess and speculate about the (potential) impact of AI development and use on diverse industries and social fields.
Develop and speculate about alternative visions of what AI technologies could be in an informed and socially aware manner.
Analyse the diverse ways technologies impact various groups of people and places and relate that to historically rooted patterns of inequality and power.
Understand how technical decisions about data, methods, and tools relate to social and cultural values and can have far-reaching social, political and economic implications.
Assess the possibilities and limitations of computation to address social issues.
Evaluate and situate themselves in a complex net of power relations and reflect on their roles, responsibilities and ethics as users and producers of various AI systems.
Timetable
You will find the timetables for all courses and degree programmes of Leiden University in the tool MyTimetable (login). Any teaching activities that you have sucessfully registered for in MyStudyMap will automatically be displayed in MyTimeTable. Any timetables that you add manually, will be saved and automatically displayed the next time you sign in.
MyTimetable allows you to integrate your timetable with your calendar apps such as Outlook, Google Calendar, Apple Calendar and other calendar apps on your smartphone. Any timetable changes will be automatically synced with your calendar. If you wish, you can also receive an email notification of the change. You can turn notifications on in ‘Settings’ (after login).
For more information, watch the video or go the the 'help-page' in MyTimetable. Please note: Joint Degree students Leiden/Delft have to merge their two different timetables into one. This video explains how to do this.
Mode of instruction
Lectures, Seminars
Assessment method
The final grade for the course is composed of 1) five smaller written assignments connected to the assigned literature submitted on a biweekly basis (50%), and 2) the final speculative design project at the end of the course (50%).
Biweekly assignments 1-5 (50%, 10% each)
Final project (50%)
o Speculative design proposal (can take various forms such as a conceptual prototype, interface mockup, film or animation, poster);
o In-class presentation of the proposal;
o Individual report on the proposal.
Grading policy:
Assignments 1-5 are intermediate steps building up to the Final project.
In order to pass the course, students must have a final grade of at least 5.5 and Final project grade of at least 5.
Students who fail the Final project can re-do the assignment (using a different topic) within a specified time frame. Students who fail the second attempt will not have a third chance for re-take. No re-takes are offered for Assignments 1-5.
The deadline for each assignment is binding; missing the deadline will automatically lead to a grade of 0.
Under special personal circumstances, e.g., sickness or family issues, deadline extension can be granted. Please direct such requests to the Study Adviser. The study advisor is the one to make an assessment of a student’s confidential, personal information, not the lecturer.
Reading list
Reading materials, along with videos, podcasts, and other study material, will be announced via Brightspace.
Registration
Every student has to register for courses with the new enrollment tool MyStudyMap.
Extensive FAQ's on MyStudymap can be found here.
Contact
Contact the lecturer Zane Kripe (z.kripe@liacs.leidenuniv.nl) for course specific questions, and the programme's coordinator for questions regarding admission and/or registration.
Remarks
Elective, external and exchange students need to be admitted to the course before registration due to limited capacity. Contact the programme's coordinator to request admission; include a short description of your course interest and state your current study programme in your correspondence.