IKT463 Artificial Intelligence in Society
- ECTS Credits:
- 7.5
- Responsible department:
- Faculty of Engineering and Science
- Course Leader:
- Christian Walter Peter Omlin
- Lecture Semester:
- Spring
- Teaching language:
- English
- Duration:
- 1 term
The course is connected to the following study programs
- Artificial Intelligence and The Internet of Things, Master's Programme
- Artificial Intelligence, 5-year master programme
Teaching language
EnglishCourse contents
AI has the potential to shape the future of global productivity, equality and inclusion, environmental impacts, and other UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) - including provision of food, health, water, energy services to the population, and underpin low-carbon systems such as circular economies and smart cities -, both in the short and in the long term. Conversely, AI’s rapidly growing economic importance may result in increased global inequality due to the unevenly distributed resources. Furthermore, society may become polarized due to AI’s negative impacts such as big data-based discrimination or computational propaganda. Failure to understand the connection between AI and society may result in gaps in transparency, safety, and ethical standards. Artificial intelligence development is thus at a critical turning point. Shared principles among sectors of societies, cultures, and nations are imperative if AI is to contribute to the achievement of sustainable development and unlock potential benefits that may go beyond the SDGs; otherwise, an AI-fuelled future may become unsustainable and failure to understand AI’s impact on society may result in gaps in transparency, safety, and ethical standards.
Learning outcomes
After completion of the course, the students should
- be able to examine AI’s impact on sustainable development encompassing the SDG pillars of human rights, social sustainability, environmental outcomes, and economic development.
- be able to critically engage with the role of AI as both an enabler and inhibitor for the achievement of sustainable development.
- have a working knowledge of some technical solutions to meet the challenges for ethical, responsible, and trustworthy approach to AI development and use.
Teaching methods
The course is organized with a combination of presentation of case studies and report writing. Case studies will be selected according to their relevance in the Norwegian context. The tasks are done individually or in small groups with group supervision. Guest lectures may be invited to cover specific aspect of AI for sustainability. The workload for the average student is approximately 200 hours.
Evaluation
The person responsible for the course decides, in cooperation with student representative, the form of student evaluation and whether the course is to have a midway or end of course evaluation in accordance with the quality system for education, chapter 4.1.
Offered as Single Standing Module
Yes, if there are places available
Admission Requirement if given as Single Standing Module
Admission requirements for the course are the same as for the master’s programme in ICT.
Assessment methods and criteria
Semester project, individual or in groups. Graded assessment.