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Week 11: Futures & Regulation

Week 11: Futures & Regulation#

Focus: Possible futures, values, and comprehensive regulation


📚 Required Readings#

Primary Readings#

  1. “The Future of AI: Scenarios and Possibilities” (30 min)

    • Optimistic scenarios: abundance, solutions to major challenges
    • Pessimistic scenarios: misalignment, power concentration
    • Most likely path: continued uncertainty and mixed outcomes
    • Role of decisions we make today
  2. “Comprehensive AI Governance Frameworks” (30 min)

    • Integration of technical, policy, and ethical approaches
    • Role of stakeholders: governments, industry, civil society, academia
    • International cooperation challenges
    • Building values into AI systems from the start

Supplementary Resources#

  • AI policy recommendations from diverse organizations
  • “The Alignment Problem” — Overview of AI safety research
  • Scenarios from AI foresight exercises

💭 Discussion Prompts#

  1. What future for AI and society would you most want to see?
  2. How can we ensure AI benefits are broadly shared?
  3. What values should guide AI development and deployment?

📝 Preparation for Class#

  • Envision your preferred future with AI (5-10 years from now): What works well? What problems have been solved or prevented?
  • Write down 2-3 actions or policies that would help achieve that future
  • Reflect on obstacles and resistance that might prevent that future

See Week 11 Assignment for this week’s task.


Final Project Planning: Begin thinking about your final project topic (due Week 12). See Final Project for details.