Sp76E Will AI Destroy Our Economic, Social & Political Systems? (Zoom; OLLI @ ASU)
Zoom | Available (Membership Required)
This course will help you understand the growing impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on our world. Recently, tools like ChatGPT and DeepSeek v3 have shown just how powerful AI can be. Experts in tech companies are even more excited because they believe we’re just a step away from creating an “applied general intelligence” (AGI) – an AI so advanced it could evolve and think far beyond what humans are capable of. AI is only a small part of a bigger change happening globally, and it’s starting to affect everything from our daily lives to governments, social systems, and even our personal beliefs. What once seemed like science fiction is now becoming a reality. This class covers these changes and explores possibilities for adaptation and management. While AI may be shaking up the way the world works, we can still find creative ways to handle these changes. However, doing so will require a lot more understanding and smart thinking than we currently have.
Brad Allenby is President’s Professor of Civil, Environmental, and Sustainable Engineering and Lincoln Professor of Technology and Ethics at Arizona State University. He moved to ASU from his previous position as the Environment, Health and Safety Vice President for AT&T in 2004. Dr. Allenby received his BA from Yale University, his JD and MA (economics) from the University of Virginia, and his MS and Ph.D. in Environmental Sciences from Rutgers University. He is past President of the International Society for Industrial Ecology, past Chair of the AAAS Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy, an AAAS Fellow, a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts, Manufactures & Commerce, and a U. S. Naval Academy Stockdale Fellow (2009-2010). He served as Director for Energy and Environmental Systems at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (1995-1997), and the J. Herbert Holloman Fellow at the National Academy of Engineering (1991-1992). His areas of expertise include emerging technologies, especially in the military and security domains; Design for Environment; industrial ecology; sustainable engineering; and earth systems engineering and management. Among his notable books are Industrial Ecology and Sustainable Engineering (co-authored with Tom Graedel in 2009), The Techno-Human Condition (co-authored with Dan Sarewitz in 2011), The Theory and Practice of Sustainable Engineering (2012), The Applied Ethics of Emerging Military and
Security Technologies (an edited volume released by Ashgate Press in 2015), Future Conflict and Emerging Technologies (2016), Weaponized Narrative: The New Battlespace (co-edited with Joel Garreau, released in 2017), and Moral Injury: Towards an International Perspective (co-edited with Tom Frame and Andrea Ellner, 2017).