AI in This Course

Artificial intelligence is part of the world you are already living in. It is changing how people learn, search, write, work, make art, and make decisions. Ignoring it would not prepare you very well. Treating it as a shortcut would not prepare you either.

In C1001, we will study AI and, at selected moments, work with it. The goal is not to outsource your thinking. The goal is to become more discerning about what these tools can do, what they cannot do, and what responsibilities remain yours.

Our basic approach

• You begin human-first. Your observations, questions, early drafts, and initial judgments come before an AI tool enters the process.

• You use AI as something to examine, not a voice to hand in. We may ask it to generate possibilities, explain its reasoning, offer feedback, or make a claim we can verify. Then we decide what it got right, what it missed, and what needs correction.

• You protect your voice. A fluent paragraph is not automatically a better paragraph. We will notice when AI makes language clearer, when it makes language flatter, and when it starts sounding unlike you.

• You verify. AI can invent sources, flatten context, repeat bias, and state uncertainty with unwarranted confidence. Checking matters.

• You keep a record of meaningful use. When an assignment involves AI, you will be clear about what you did with it and what you did yourself. Transparency helps us learn; it is not a trap.

There will also be assignments and stages of assignments where AI is not appropriate because the point is your own close reading, inquiry, writing practice, or judgment. Each activity will tell you what kind of use, if any, is expected.

I do not use AI-detection tools to police student writing. I am more interested in the process you can show, the choices you can explain, and the thinking you can own.