AI in Digital Culture
This program aims to foster a transdisciplinary environment where humanities and STEM students can think critically, engage, and interact with technical and social constructions of machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms and systems. This certificate will focus on humanistic and socio-cultural engagement with AI with a core set of classes with complementary domain knowledge including Minds and Machines; Science Fiction, Creativity and Responsibility; and Algorithmic Reading. This program includes curriculum building, development of online modules, and community/partnership development for experiential learning opportunities.
Instructors
Suren Jayasuriya Ph.D.
Edward Finn Ph.D.
Xin Wei Sha Ph.D.
Rizwan Virk, Ph.D.
Course Developer
Lein de Leon Yong
Website Design
Nina Miller
Watch The Spark and the Code on Youtube
On April 10, 2025 ASU hosted The Spark and the Code, a lively public conversation exploring one of the most urgent and inspiring questions of our time: What does human imagination and creativity look like in the age of artificial intelligence?
Moderated by CSI founding director Ed Finn, the event brought together two leading thinkers—Anna Abraham, a creativity researcher and professor at the University of Georgia, and Brian Christian, acclaimed author and researcher at the University of Oxford. Together, they delved into a thought-provoking discussion about machine intelligence and human ingenuity, and the surprising ways we may think, create, and learn in the future.
Speakers:
Anna Abraham
E. Paul Torrance Professor, Department of Educational Psychology
Director, Torrance Center for Creativity and Talent Development
University of Georgia
Brian Christian
Researcher Department of Experimental Psychology
University of Oxford
Author of The Most Human Human, Algorithms to Live By, and The Alignment Problem
Presented by the Center for Science and the Imagination, the School of Arts, Media, and Engineering, and Principled Innovation
Courses
Minds and Machines
This course introduces students to the broad area of artificial intelligence and its intersections with various domains including cognitive science, symbolic logic and reasoning, philosophy of mind, science fiction literature, and data science.
Reading the Algorithm
This course seeks to define the algorithm in terms of its cultural shadow, incorporating computational as well as philosophical understandings of how technical systems shape human activity to understand the stories we tell ourselves about algorithms.
Social Dimensions of the Metaverse for Innovators
This course explores innovation, strategy, technological progress and impact in the real world of virtual worlds in the emerging “metaverse”. This includes virtual economies, multiple metaverse environments, virtual identities (avatars), virtual property & land, virtual goods (in-world items and NFTs), social standards and issues, AI avatars and blockchain/web3. There is a particular focus on entrepreneurship, content creators and other types of innovations related to the metaverse.
Undergraduate Certificate
At ASU, we have recently created a new undergraduate certificate “Artificial Intelligence and Digital Media” which allows students to enhance their program of study with integrated, transdisciplinary training in the use of AI in new media and its sociocultural implications. Students learn how to design and create new media as well as analyze existing media products in the world from a transdisciplinary perspective. Click the link below for more information:
Further Resources
What Algorithms Want by Ed Finn https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262536042/what-algorithms-want/
Ed Finn and Suren Jayasuriya, “Cultural Myths and Narratives about Artificial Intelligence” in Reporting on artificial intelligence: a handbook for journalism educators, Editor: Dr. Maarit Jaakkola, UNESCO Series on Journalism Education, 2023
The Imaging Lyceum Lab at ASU: https://sites.google.com/asu.edu/imaging-lyceum/
ImageSTEAM (Artificial Intelligence, Computational Cameras, and Visual Media Curriculum for Middle School): www.imagesteam.org
Open Access Curriculum
Please use any of the material and videos in your course
Contact: sjayasur@asu.edu
This curriculum was sponsored by the National Endowment of the Humanities award: AKB-279509-21
Any views, finding, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this course do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
