Artificial Intelligence and Human Flourishing (AIHF): Interdisciplinary Minor
AI now sits in the middle of decisions about who gets hired, how patients get diagnosed, what news people see, and how students are taught. The AIHF minor gives you enough computer science to understand how those systems
About Us
The AIHF minor is offered at the intersection of the Department of Philosophy and the Department of Computer Science in Loyola’s College of Arts and Sciences, with relevant courses from other specialties within the university. Philosophy is the minor’s academic home on paper, but the two departments share it in practice, and that is the point. The technical questions and the human ones get taught together instead of in separate silos.
The minor is open to undergraduates in any school and any major. You do not need to have programming experience before you start.
Program leadership: Michael Burns (AIHF Director), with George K. Thiruvathukal (Chair, Department of Computer Science) and Matthew Dunch (Department of Philosophy).
Why AI and Human Flourishing?
Why “human flourishing”? Because the useful question about an AI system is not how impressive it is. It is where it fits in a world we all want to live in.
Some AI does real good. It catches patterns in medical images that a tired human eye misses, it lets people who share no common language talk to each other, and it takes the tedium out of a lot of boring, repetitive work. On the other end, some of it does real damage, to privacy, to working conditions, to what people end up believing is true. Most of it does some of each, and sorting out which is which takes more than a strong opinion. It takes knowing what the thing is actually doing.
That is what the minor provides. You learn how these systems are built, closely enough to see where they break and what they cannot do. You work through the older questions that come attached to them, about minds, knowledge, and what a good life actually requires. Then you put the two together and evaluate specific cases: this application helps people, that one gets in their way, and here is why. Loyola is a Jesuit university, so asking what a technology does to a person’s life is not an unusual thing to do here.
Curriculum / Catalog
How the curriculum is structured:
The minor is 18 credit hours, six courses, in four parts. Courses can be taken in any order, and one course a semester finishes the minor comfortably over three years.
- Technological Foundations (6 hrs): two courses on how AI and computing actually work, at least one of them in Computer Science (e.g., Introduction to Computing, Machine Learning, Computing and Data Analysis for the Sciences, History of Computing).
- Ethical Foundations (6 hrs): two courses on what the technology does to people and to society, at least one of them in Philosophy (e.g., Philosophy of Technology, Digital Media Ethics, Social, Legal, and Ethical Issues in Computing, Topics in Ethics).
- Philosophy and Humanities Foundations (3 hrs): one course on the older questions underneath AI (e.g., Philosophy of Mind, Symbolic Logic, Theory of Knowledge, Issues in Metaphysics).
- Elective (3 hrs): one more course of your choice from any of the three lists above.
Some courses show up on more than one list, but a course can only satisfy one requirement. All courses are taught in person.
Full course lists and requirements are in the academic catalog
Learning Outcomes
Students who complete the AIHF minor will be able to:
- Apply the principles and practice of programming needed to build basic AI applications.
- Analyze the social, ethical, and legal impacts of AI on individual and social flourishing.
- Trace the philosophical and historical roots of artificial intelligence and engage the ongoing philosophical problems it raises.
Career Outcomes
Employers in technology, health care, finance, law, media, education, and government are all making decisions about AI right now, and most of them are short on people who can speak to both halves of the problem. AIHF graduates can. The minor points toward work in responsible AI and AI governance, pr
18
Credit hours to finish the minor
6
Courses, in any order, one a semester if that suits your schedule
3
Departments teaching it: Philosophy, Computer Science, Communication
Admission / How to Declare
The minor is open to every Loyola undergraduate, in any school and any major. You can declare it any time before your last semester, though declaring earlier makes the scheduling easier.
Current Loyola students
Talk to your academic advisor or declare through LOCUS, then get in touch with the program director about what to take and when. If you have already taken something on one of the three lists, there is a good chance it counts.
Prospective Students
Start by applying to Loyola. Mention AIHF to your admission counselor and we will hear about it, and you can write to the program director with questions before you ever set foot on campus.
FAQ
Q: Do I need to know how to code?
A: No. Introduction to Computing assumes no experience, and it is one of the courses that satisfies Technological Foundations.
Q: Can a course count for both my major and the minor?
A: [Answer pending, see note.] Inside the minor itself, a course that appears on more than one list can only satisfy one requirement.
Q: How long does it take?
A: Six courses. At one a semester that is three years, and students who start early or double up in a term finish sooner.
Q: Are the courses online?
A: No, everything in the minor is taught in person.
Related Programs
Students who are drawn to the AIHF minor often look at these programs too, and several of them pair well with it.
Philosophy (BA) Computer Science (BS) Software Engineering (BS)
What does AI do (and not do) for humanity?
First-year students still working out what AI even is, sophomores and juniors looking to round out a degree, and everyone in between: get in touch. We are glad to talk through what the minor involves and how it fits with the major you already have.
