IDH 3931
Interstellar AI

A UF "(Un)common Writes" Honors course focused on one of the most uncommon ways of writing: for the stars.

Course Description
Beyond the end of writing, our probes and transmissions will transit the stars. The symbolic rhetorics of our messages at once indicate the significance of communicative priorities and serve to mark by absence what could have been different. In other words, our messages must prioritize content to such a degree that what is not sent could also be significant. What if we could send new versions? On the Pioneer probes, we sent plaques etched with signs. On the Voyager probes, we sent golden records with sights and sounds. Thus, as technology progresses, our messages develop in sophistication. What would we send in the age of artificial intelligence? By interpreting messages we have already sent, analyzing their formation and genre, reading their history, and recreating them, we will come to fully appreciate the elements of scientific semiosis to prepare for the course project: crafting an AI-driven message.

ENC 3254
Professional Writing in AI

Preparation for the Careers of the Future

Course Description
The advantages of AI in research and industry are limitless. As developments in AI unfold, new programs, platforms, services, and applications will influence if not reshape entire sectors of the economy. Along the way, such AI-driven solutions will be prepared, packaged, and promoted with professional writing. Therefore, students pursuing courses and careers in AI should develop not only programming capacities but also skills in proposals, presentations, and visual rhetoric. To that end, this course will professionalize your writing in preparation for AI-related research and business opportunities.

IDS 2935
The Rhetoric of AI

How can we unlock the ability of AI to convince others?

Course Description
Just as the internet revolutionized the economy, so AI is reshaping potential in every sector from finance and automobiles to art and business to business sales. At the heart of AI capabilities or dreams rest human talents, among which number understanding, interpreting, imagining, making smart decisions, and conversing. On this last front, companies large and small, from blue chips to startups, are creating platforms and solutions that drive human-machine interaction by and through conversations. For every, “Okay, Google” or “Hey, Siri” to help us with tasks, there is the potential for “Help me understand something” and “Help me through something.” Thus, while we have the ability to give AI commands, conversational AI has the power to influence, persuade, and help us grow, all of which create equally interesting and alarming possibilities. Can AI be programmed to mimic personality qua identity? To the extent that rhetoric is the art of persuasion, can AI be programmed to effectively manipulate situations toward optimal events? In this Quest 1 course, we will examine these questions while testing our assumptions. By relying on multidisciplinary knowledge from anthropology, art, linguistics, philosophy, professional writing, psychology, rhetoric, and technical writing to develop interdisciplinary skills in creative and critical thinking, collaboration, presentations, public speaking, and research, our work in AI will necessarily bridge the humanities with the technical. To that end, we will begin with the history and theories of rhetoric and AI. Then, we will survey the landscape of AI developers and developments. Finally, we will program a conversational AI assistant to explore how rhetorical savvy can attach to AI potential. Along the way, we will use enterprise-grade platforms, pursue certifications for career-readiness, undertake projects to professionalize our writing, and develop professional workplace competencies. By the end of this course, students will be able to understand the history of rhetoric, discuss current articulations of AI, professionally craft technical content, favorably edit their work as well as the work of their peers, effectively demonstrate solutions and collaboratively marshal resources to support them, and master the strategies to successfully realize AI projects on Enterprise-grade platforms.

IDS 2935
AI Policy, Policies, and Policing

Examining Fairness and Reason behind University AI Policies

Course Description
AI programs, platforms, applications, and services have proliferated over the last two years. In that time, the national conversation—from classrooms to congress—about AI has intensified. Yet, the discourse about AI has tends toward dichotomy and dilemma. Indeed, the very concepts used to describe AI use tend toward encampment (e.g., a tool can be right or wrong). Since nebulous conceptualization moves us away from appreciating the complex realities and processes that underpin the work of AI, the way we imagine AI can lead to misunderstanding, and the downstream effects therefrom can have a devastating effect on students (e.g., students become subject to policies that limit potential or party to procedures that likewise imperil futures). Relatedly, universities, colleges, departments, and faculty are creating policies that embrace or exile AI. Missions, visions, values, and principles are being revised in light of new developments. In this course, we will study whether conceptualizations of AI and the policies built thereon are reasonably just. To that end, students will learn and apply theory, create and design multimodal content, and evaluate policies across higher education while grappling with our essential question: can AI policies be fair?