Valid for: 2024/25
Faculty: Faculty of Engineering LTH
Decided by: PLED L
Date of Decision: 2023-12-04
Effective: 2024-03-15
Language of instruction: The course will be given in English
Artificial intelligence (AI) has fast become synonymous with social and economic change. Seemingly overnight, it has spread into all corners of life, from the private to the professional to the public, and shows no sign of slowing down. But what does the rapid adoption of this technology mean for society? How do we make sure that its economic impact does not create more social problems than it solves? How might the change brought about by AI be made more sustainable, not only for us, but for the natural world?
This course explores the social, economic and environmental change brought on by developments in AI. It aims to provide critical and analytical tools to interrogate AI change processes and steer them in more sustainable directions. This is achieved with a focus on: (1) the conceptual and empirical origins of ‘sustainability’ and ‘artificial intelligence’, and theoretical frameworks for researching and understanding their intersection; (2) the social and material origins of AI systems, with particular attention to their invisible production processes and environmental costs; and (3) uses and impacts of AI in key areas of social, economic and environmental life.
Through a combination of online lectures and seminars on key readings, course participants will develop knowledge of the challenges and opportunities for AI to contribute to positive social, environmental and economic change. They will learn how to use sustainability frameworks in the area of AI, how to identify the reflexivity of AI systems (ie, their capacity to attend to the unsustainable conditions on which they are built) but also the rebound effects that threaten to undermine their promise, and will develop critical and conceptual faculties to analyse the multiple and conflicting impacts of emerging technologies. In this way, the course aims to provide practical social scientific knowledge to lifelong learners (with private or public sector organisational experience) and engineering students (in complement to their technical learning).
Knowledge and understanding
For a passing grade the student must
Competences and skills
For a passing grade the student must
Judgement and approach
For a passing grade the student must
The course has been designed to facilitate distance learning (ie, online engagement) but will provide opportunities for onsite discussions. The first, introductory lecture will be held on campus with remote attendance possible (via Zoom). Each of the following 9 lectures will be pre-recorded and uploaded to the LMS (ie, Canvas). Participants will be able to access the materials and complete the readings at their convenience during the week. Two optional weekly seminar discussions of the course materials will also take place. One of these will be online and the other onsite (or hybrid, depending on student numbers), with preference for online attendance given to distance learners. Borrowing from the flipped classroom pedagogy, the seminars will be lightly structured, with questions and discussions being directed by the participants.
Three sets of three lectures give the course material its structure. In the first set, the students will gain theoretical purchase on the concepts of sustainability and AI, and how they interrelate. The second, on the sustainability of AI, will explore the production of AI from an interdisciplinary open-systems perspective. It will examine where the hardware and data that power AI originate, the labour involved in training AI models, and the environmental footprint of the AI supply chain. The third set will focus on AI for sustainability. It will address the use of AI in land use management, human resource management, and public administration, and think through what a fair, accountable and sustainable AI should involve.
Grading scale: UG - (U, G) - (Fail, Pass)
Assessment:
The course will be 5 credits. Three written assignments of 1500 words will be set, one for each of the three lecture sets given on the course. Students will receive a grade averaged from their best two results of the assignments (and so may chose not to complete one assignment and direct their reading accordingly),
The examiner, in consultation with Disability Support Services, may deviate from the regular form of examination in order to provide a permanently disabled student with a form of examination equivalent to that of a student without a disability.
Modules
Code: 0124. Name: Sustainable AI? Social and Environmental Impacts of Artificial Intelligence.
Credits: 5.0. Grading scale: UG - (U, G).
Admission requirements:
Course coordinator: James White,
james.white@lth.lu.se
Course coordinator: Stefan Larsson,
stefan.larsson@lth.lu.se