College of Arts and Sciences

Humanities Center

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College of Arts and Sciences

The Changing Face of Humanity: AI and Identities of the Future

Artists, scientists, humanities scholars, engineers, social scientists and other faculty across USD's curriculum discuss the different ways that disciplines embrace, reject, and question artificial intelligence and its impact on humanness and identity into the future in the context of the nature of knowledge and learning.

Humanities Center Seminar (HUMC 294)

What does it mean to be human when artificial intelligence is shaping our world? What can AI teach us about intelligence and the nature of knowledge and learning? The Changing Face of Humanity is a one-unit tuition free course that brings together artists, scientists, humanities scholars, engineers, social scientists and other distinguished faculty across USD's curriculum to discuss the different ways that disciplines embrace, reject, and question artificial intelligence and its impact on humanness and identity into the future in the context of the nature of knowledge and learning

In this summer class, faculty members introduce incoming first-year students to the different ways that academic disciplines help us develop critical intellectual skills so that we can make a sustained positive impact in the world. Taught remotely, this course will be highly participatory and introduce students to the interdisciplinary nature of a USD liberal arts education.

Week 1

How We Think & Collaborate

  • Satyan Devadoss, PhD | Mathematics
    A.I., Computers and Mathematics
  • Jen Wenzel, PhD | Psychological Sciences
    This is A.I. on Your Brain: What Neuroscience Can Tell Us About Current Capabilities in Human-Computer Interaction
  • Julie Morgan, MBA | Business
    Design Thinking and A.I.
  • Kacie Miura, PhD | Political Science and International Relations
    A.I. and the International Security Environment

Week 2

Identity Formation, Division, & Mechanisms

  • Sara Esfahani, PhD | Economics
    A.I. and the Division of Domestic Labor
  • Brittany Asaro, PhD | Languages, Cultures and Literatures
    Becoming Human: Pinocchio from His “Birth” to Today
  • Rachel Blaser, PhD | Psychological Sciences
    Artificial & Biological Prediction Machines
  • Sara Hasselbach, PhD | English
    Social Media, Identity & Black Mirror

Week 3

(Re)productions & Machine Consciousness

  • Amanda Petersen, PhD | Languages, Cultures and Literatures
    Copies & Originality According to Borges
  • Hannah Holtzman, PhD | Humanities Center
    A.I. and Cinema
  • Jeff Malecki, DMA | Music
    Fake Drake: The Blurred Lines of A.I.-Produced Pop Music
  • Eliza Smith, PhD | Languages, Cultures and Literatures
    Anatomical Venus & Uncanny Valley in Monsieur Vénus (1884) and Les yeux sans visage (1960)

Week 4

What It Means to Be Human

  • Laura Getz, PhD | Psychological Sciences
    Differences in Language Use: Human vs A.I.
  • Marni LaFleur, PhD | Anthropology
    A.I. and Non-Human Animals
  • Susie Babka, PhD | Theology and Religious Studies
    Can Qualia be Quantified?
  • Darby Vickers, PhD | Philosophy
    Plato, A.I. and Intellectual Pleasure

Week 5

Improving Human Capacities

  • Jennifer Olsen, PhD | Computer Science
    A.I. and Educational Technology in the Classroom
  • Sara Appleton-Knapp, PhD | Psychological Sciences
    Optimal Study Strategies Using A.I.
  • Jae Kim, PhD | Industrial and Systems Engineering
    A.I.’s Impact in Industrial Engineering