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Responsible Data Science (RDS) and Responsible AI (RAI) have emerged as prominent areas of research and practice. Yet, educational materials and methodologies on this important subject still lack. In this paper, I will recount my experience in developing, teaching, and refining a technical course called “Responsible Data Science”, which tackles the issues of ethics in AI, legal compliance, data quality, algorithmic fairness and diversity, transparency of data and algorithms, privacy, and data protection. I will also describe a public education course called “We are AI: Taking Control of Technology” that brings these topics of AI ethics to the general audience in a peer-learning setting. I made all course materials are publicly available online, hoping to inspire others in the community to come together to form a deeper understanding of the pedagogical needs of RDS and RAI, and to develop and share the much-needed concrete educational materials and methodologies.
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This content will become publicly available on April 11, 2026
We Are AI: Taking Control of Technology
Responsible AI (RAI) is the science and practice of ensuring the design, development, use, and oversight of AI are socially sustainable---benefiting diverse stakeholders while controlling the risks. Achieving this goal requires active engagement and participation from the broader public. This paper introduces We are AI: Taking Control of Technology, a public education course that brings the topics of AI and RAI to the general audience in a peer-learning setting. We outline the goals behind the course's development, discuss the multi-year iterative process that shaped its creation, and summarize its content. We also discuss two offerings of We are AI to an active and engaged group of librarians and professional staff at New York University, highlighting successes and areas for improvement. The course materials, including a multilingual comic book series by the same name, are publicly available and can be used independently. By sharing our experience in creating and teaching We are AI, we aim to introduce these resources to the community of AI educators, researchers, and practitioners, supporting their public education efforts.
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- PAR ID:
- 10610420
- Publisher / Repository:
- AAAI.org
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence
- Volume:
- 39
- Issue:
- 28
- ISSN:
- 2159-5399
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 29070 to 29077
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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