Both optimists and pessimists claim that AI is changing our world. This course questions that hype and fear. For it is us who make our world, and so we must ask instead: what values are we building into AI? Who will be included in testing, deploying, and regulating it? What economic interests are driving and shaping its growth? And what is the ecological footprint of its data centers? Overall, this course examines AI as both a technological artifact but also an object of language and of our imaginations. To that end, we will seek new ways of naming these digital systems: is ChatGPT anything more than fancy auto-complete? What rhetorical and political consequences might follow from understanding these systems as synthesizers of existing culture rather than "generators" of anything new? Through reading and discussing texts from STS and beyond, this course will hone your informed skepticism toward the thing we call "AI."
3 units · Letter (ABCD/NP)
Both optimists and pessimists claim that AI is changing our world. This course questions that hype and fear. For it is us who make our world, and so we must ask instead: what values are we building into AI? Who will be included in testing, deploying, and regulating it? What economic interests are driving and shaping its growth? And what is the ecological footprint of its data centers? Overall, this course examines AI as both a technological artifact but also an object of language and of our imaginations. To that end, we will seek new ways of naming these digital systems: is ChatGPT anything more than fancy auto-complete? What rhetorical and political consequences might follow from understanding these systems as synthesizers of existing culture rather than "generators" of anything new? Through reading and discussing texts from STS and beyond, this course will hone your informed skepticism toward the thing we call "AI."
Offered in Winter 2026 at Stanford University.