Living with AI (GEOG3703) integrates themes from critical human and digital geographies to examine corporate and alternative large language model development and their lived applications. Students will begin by situating the course within competing definitions of "artificial intelligence" and exploring the historical influence of geography on scientific research into "human intelligence." Students will then examine ai-mediated experiences across digital platforms, urban living, migration, and labor contexts. A significant focus will be placed on investigating ai's uneven environmental impacts, with particular attention to extraction and manufacturing sites in the Global South and data storage facilities in rural America. Finally, students will assess language models that emerge from community-based initiatives and Indigenous ontologies. Through course assessments, students will develop creative approaches to addressing ai’s obscured impacts on societies, economies, and politics, fostering critical geographic thinking about our increasingly ai-integrated world.
Will count towards the GEN Theme: Lived Environments.