SPECIAL TOPICS: Getting AI Right for Tec

OVERVIEW: Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming every sector of human activity—from healthcare and education to defense and diplomacy—presenting both risks and opportunities and raising urgent questions about ethics, governance, global stability, and even civilizational churn. This course explores AI as both a technological and geopolitical force, one that has considerable societal impact in reshaping institutions, economies, and even civilization itself. Rather than approaching the topic from a technical perspective, the course is designed for students across disciplines who seek to understand how AI and convergent technologies can be developed and governed responsibly in a time of unprecedented change.

CONTENT: Students will examine AI not as a set of tools but as an evolving infrastructure of global order. The course integrates ethical reasoning, policy analysis, and systems thinking to investigate how to get AI right in an era of rapid techno-social transformation. Students will explore foundational frameworks for AI governance and regulation (e.g., EU AI Act); analyze how the convergence of emerging technologies drives innovation and reshapes industries (e.g., autonomous vehicles); understand the role of AI within the larger context of human innovation; debate the rise of sovereign AI as a geopolitical force (e.g., UAE’s ‘Falcon’, Singapore’s ‘SEA-LION’ models.); evaluate AI’s potential role in both civilizational collapse and societal resilience; and apply methods of strategic foresight to anticipate future emerging technologies (e.g., the work of Sachs, Acemoglu & Robinson, Spengler etc.). Final projects will synthesize technical, ethical, and geopolitical perspectives to design a Responsible AI framework relevant to students’ personal and professional contexts.

LOGISTICS: The course meets once per week in person. No technical background or coding experience is required. Open to all Columbia University graduate students.