New AI technologies are now generating text, images, videos and music that previously only humans could create. These technologies raise fundamental questions about how we think about creativity, economics, social trust and safety, the future of work, and what it means to be human in a world that feels like computers are “doing our job.” Now, more than ever, we need the technology-informed liberal arts to scrutinize the signs of the times and guide our technology infused society.
To address these and similar needs, theTechnology and Digital Studies Program fosters collaboration across the University to empower students, faculty, and the wider Notre Dame community to see the larger whole of societal needs while promoting important technological skills and understandings. Our students are positioned to be technology- and data-savvy leaders by combining the strengths of the liberal arts – communication, creativity, cognition, collaboration – with skills and perspectives from new disciplines including computer science, data science, design thinking, cyber forensics and the digital arts.
“The specialization which belongs to technology makes it difficult to see the larger picture. The fragmentation of knowledge proves helpful for concrete applications, and yet it often leads to a loss of appreciation for the whole, for the relationships between things, and for the broader horizon, which then becomes irrelevant.”
— Pope Francis,
Laudato Sí: On Care for our Common Home
Notre Dame has a unique opportunity to bring to bear the full range of the liberal arts and computer science perspectives to help society tackle these emerging issues. We invite you to join in the conversation as we launch The New AI on ThinkND with our first guest Kristen DiCerbo, chief learning officer of Khan Academy, on Thursday, September 21, 2023 at 3:30 pm ET.
Best wishes from campus,
John Behrens ’83
Director, Technology and Digital Studies Program
Professor of the Practice of Technology and Digital Studies
Concurrent Professor of the Practice of Computer Science & Engineering