It is fair to say that AI is creating ripples and controversy the world over. It seems no one is really sure exactly how to deal with it, and in fact that’s as it should be. If AI continues to grow the way we are encouraging it to grow, it could become as seminal an event as the Agricultural Revolution. Civilization Meets AI is a Socratic curriculum specifically designed to help educators and other nontechnical learners address some of the larger questions that will arise from our civilization-wide encounter with AI. This pilot course includes six seminars that trace multiple topics facing our relationship with AI, our similarities and differences, and how we might adjust our dealings with AI as it evolves.
The participants will have six classes, each 2.5 hours long. First, the facilitator will introduce the topic of the day, and the questions up for discussion for that session. Second, the participants will have ten minutes to identify and note their own thoughts about the topic. Third, the class will break into small discussion groups. Then a brief break. When they reconvene, the facilitator will engage them all in Socratic dialogue about the topic in general and their small group conclusions in particular. Fifth, the facilitator will synthesize the conversation, possibly including new ideas that bear on the issue. Finally, the participants will reflect on the issues raised and their reactions to them.
The first topic is “Why do some people fear AI?” The final topic is “What happens if we create another civilization?” AI may never become sentient, but both the short-term and long-term consequences of increasingly advanced AI on human civilization are worth discussing at the highest level. By the end of this course, the participants will be able to contribute meaningfully to a conversation on that level.
