AIE510X - Responsible AI for Society
Course Description
In an era where AI technologies are rapidly reshaping every facet of society, from business operations to personal interactions, understanding the multifaceted implications of AI is no longer optional but imperative. This course is designed to navigate the complex interplay between AI and various societal dimensions, including ethical responsibility, bias mitigation, policy formulation, legal frameworks, intellectual property, and censorship.
As AI continues to advance, it brings forth a myriad of challenges and opportunities that demand informed and thoughtful engagement from professionals, policymakers, and the public at large. The primary objective of this course is to equip you with a nuanced understanding of these critical issues. We aim to delve deep into the responsibilities and risks associated with AI, exploring how corporate and personal accountability play pivotal roles in shaping AI's impact. The course will guide you through the intricacies of identifying and mitigating biases in AI systems, a crucial step towards ensuring fairness and equity in AI applications.
By the end of this course, you will have gained a comprehensive understanding of these key areas, enriched by real-world examples, case studies, and interactive assignments. Whether you are a student, a professional in the field, or an interested observer, this course will provide you with the critical insights and analytical tools necessary to navigate and contribute to the world of AI responsibly and effectively. Join us in this intellectual journey to demystify the multifaceted world of AI and prepare yourself to be an informed participant in the ongoing discourse surrounding this transformative technology.
Key Benefits
- 100% online self-paced course.
- Learn to use and apply AI applications in your professional role
- No prior experience required.
- Stackable for academic credit towards a degree.
- No textbooks and other materials required for purchase.
Learning Modules Include
- Unit 1: AI Responsibility and Risks
- Appraise key concepts in social responsibility and risk analysis as they pertain to AI.
- Corporate Social Responsibility (Responsible Research & Innovation; Public Interest Technology; Technological Stewardship)
- Personal Responsibility (Reasonable Person; Duty of Care)
- Risk Management. (Risk Tolerance / Acceptable Risk, Precautionary Principle)
- Unit 2: Identifying and Mitigating Biases in AI
- Correlate potential sources of bias in AI systems with related mitigation strategies.
- Thoughtfulness in product design and development.
- May include items such as: Diverse and reliable training data, diverse engineers, transparent/explainable algorithms, training users to interpret AI output responsibly.
- Humans should always be the decision-makers, informed by AI (which requires explainable AI).
- Unit 3: AI Policies
- Evaluate potential policy approaches to balancing conflicting societal needs for user privacy and big data in AI.
- Maintaining control
- AI requires massive amounts of data in order to work. Users want some measure of control over what data is collected, how it is protected, how it is used, how it is interconnected/anonymized, etc.
- Provenance of data is crucial for assessing the validity of AI outputs. Concerns about widespread surveillance, especially in authoritarian regimes.
- Data Security.
- Unit 4: Legal and Regulatory Frameworks
- Evaluate emerging AI laws, regulations, and policy frameworks in the U.S. and other countries.
- Varying comfort levels with risk, varying levels of proposed (or enacted) oversight, and varying speeds of legislative action (which relates to risks with early AI implementation).
- Focus on democracies such as Canada, the U.K., and the E.U. that have the greatest impact on U.S. businesses. However, also important to note trends in authoritarian countries such as China.
- Ensure students understand how far behind regulators are in relation to personalized marketing.
- Unit 5 – AI & Intellectual Property
- Analyze major intellectual property concerns related to AI.
- Copyright
- Use of copyrighted material for AI training could be seen as a transformative (fair) use or an infringement. Traces of copyrighted material may be found in AI outputs without compensation or acknowledgment.
- Original Works
- AI ability to create original works in the style of a given artist harms the market for that artist's own creations. AI outputs currently not protected by copyright due to requirement for human creativity.
- Unit 6 – AI & Censorship
- Evaluate the pros and cons of using AI for content moderation.
- Obligation to combat harmful content at scale
- Manual content moderation by humans is emotionally exhausting and unscalable
- Combat child exploitation, hate speech, violence, etc. at scale and across languages
- Fears of censorship and erosion of privacy.
Course Learning Outcomes
- Appraise key concepts in social responsibility and risk analysis as they pertain to AI.
- Correlate potential sources of bias in AI systems with related mitigation strategies.
- Evaluate potential policy approaches to balancing conflicting societal needs for user privacy and big data in AI.
- Evaluate emerging AI laws, regulations, and policy frameworks in the U.S. and other countries.
- Analyze major intellectual property concerns related to AI.
- Evaluate the pros and cons of using AI for content moderation.
Requirements to Enroll
All learners are eligible to enroll in AIE510X: Responsible AI for Society. There are no admissions requirements. It is recommended that learners have a high school diploma or GED.
Estimated Time to Completion
50 Hours
Access Time
Learners will have access to their course learning modules for up to 12 months from the date of their enrollment.
Certificate of Completion
After completion of all 6 units of AIE510X: Responsible AI for Society, learners will be awarded an official National University Workforce Education Solutions Professional and Continuing Education Certificate of Completion.