Project Week: AI, Society, and Governance

What it is about

You engage with the interplay of Artificial Intelligence, society and governance from a social science perspective. You will learn how AI changes social and economic processes, how to use AI tools for social science research, and how to critically evaluate and audit models.

What you will be able to do

Analyze the impact of AI on society, economy and governance
Evaluate ethical implications and methodological challenges of AI-supported social research
Apply AI tools to address social science questions and solve problems

What the module consists of

Seminaraccompanies the project work and conveys theoretical as well as methodological foundations
Projektarbeitcentral element: development and evaluation of an AI tool in groups, presentation of results
Coding‑Tutorialssupport the technical implementation and use of APIs/LLMs

Teaching method

Seminarformatconveys social science perspectives and theory
Gruppenprojekteenable practical application of LLMs to social problems
Coding‑Tutorialsintroduce technical implementation and use of APIs

What you should already know

Familiarität im Umgang mit APIs (mit Python oder R)recommended

Assessment

Project workPresentation

The assessment is a project work with a final presentation (duration: 30 minutes). You work in groups on a research project (topic suggestions: bias identification with LLMs; toxicity identification with LLMs; identification of biases in LLMs; advice‑giving and persuasion – medical or political; or a topic proposed by you and approved). Evaluation is based on the ability to design an AI tool (50%), the quality of the presentation (40%), and the quality of the discussion with the audience (10%).

Reading list

Vykopal, I. et al. - Disinformation capabilities of large language models
Kaddour, J. et al. - Challenges and applications of large language models
Velez, Y. R. & Liu, P. - Confronting Core Issues: A Critical Assessment of Attitude Polarization Using Tailored Experiments
Costello, T. H., Pennycook, G. & Rand, D. G. - Durably reducing conspiracy beliefs through dialogues with AI
Augenstein, I. et al. - Factuality challenges in the era of large language models and opportunities for fact‑checking
Narayanan, A. & Kapoor, S. - Model alignment protects against accidental harms, not intentional ones

Filters

Project Week: AI, Society, and Governance

What it is about

What you will be able to do

What the module consists of

Teaching method

Module ratings

Rate this module