Educating a Responsible AI Workforce: Piloting a Curricular Module on AI Policy in a Graduate Machine Learning Course

TL;DR

This paper presents a pilot AI policy curriculum module integrated into a graduate machine learning course, aiming to enhance students' understanding of AI ethics, policy, and social impacts through active learning.

Contribution

It introduces and evaluates a novel two-lecture AI policy module with active learning components for technical students, addressing gaps in traditional computer science curricula.

Findings

Students showed increased awareness of AI social impacts.

The module successfully engaged students on AI policy topics.

Interest in AI regulation grew among participants.

Abstract

As artificial intelligence (AI) technologies begin to permeate diverse fields-from healthcare to education-consumers, researchers and policymakers are increasingly raising concerns about whether and how AI is regulated. It is therefore reasonable to anticipate that alignment with principles of 'ethical' or 'responsible' AI, as well as compliance with law and policy, will form an increasingly important part of AI development. Yet, for the most part, the conventional computer science curriculum is ill-equipped to prepare students for these challenges. To this end, we seek to explore how new educational content related to AI ethics and AI policy can be integrated into both ethics- and technical-focused courses. This paper describes a two-lecture 'AI policy module' that was piloted in a graduate-level introductory machine learning course in 2024. The module, which includes an in-class active learning game, is evaluated using data from student surveys before and after the lectures, and pedagogical motivations and considerations are discussed. We find that the module is successful in engaging otherwise technically-oriented students on the topic of AI policy, increasing student awareness of the social impacts of a variety of AI technologies and developing student interest in the field of AI regulation.