Juliet McDermott

As the conversation around artificial intelligence (AI) tools and their impacts at colleges like Bowdoin continues, some faculty from the Department of Computer Science are pursuing a unique approach—exposing students to AI and allowing them to form their own opinions from this experience.

The computer science department isn’t the only academic department at the College that is tackling AI. Other departments, including the Departments of Mathematics and Digital and Computational Studies, feature AI in their coursework, according to Assistant Professor of Computer Science Jeová Farias. Nonetheless, Farias says, the Department of Computer Science is more equipped to look at AI from a technical perspective.

“We really dive into the algorithms, the implementation … [and] the technical mathematical analysis of [AI] models,” Farias said. “Other departments, especially [Digital and Computational Studies], are more concerned with the consequences of the creation of [AI] tools…. Here, it’s more like, ‘How can we actually create these new tools? ’”

Farias teaches two AI-related computer science courses this semester, including the department’s core AI class. He says that while ethical issues related to AI, including its energy usage, are still discussed in his classes, the focus is on the actual systems at work.

By doing so, Farias explained how he aims to empower students to form their own opinions about the topic in his courses.

“That’s definitely one of my goals,” Farias said. “They can actually … have their individual interpretations of what’s actually happening behind the scenes with all the AI hype.”

According to Farias, students coming into his classes sometimes have preconceived notions surrounding AI, including its implications for the world, which he aims to challenge.

“I think students usually come in with this kind of gloom and doom type of mentality that AI will destroy the world,” Farias said. “In my opinion, AI is just another technological tool like the calculator was 100 years ago.”

Visiting Lecturer in Computer Science Christopher Martin also allows students to form their own opinions on AI through increased exposure outside of the classroom. In January, Martin was part of a team that spearheaded an AI hackathon at the Career Exploration and Development Center’s (CXD) Sophomore Bootcamp.

During the event, students, with and without technical backgrounds, used AI to create their own projects. According to Martin, student projects ranged from a game using AI to generate content to an attempt to create cover letters using AI to a website for a personal photography business. He says a major benefit of the hackathon was giving students exposure to a technical level of AI which they likely hadn’t encountered before.

Like Farias, Martin also views this increased exposure to AI as helpful to students working through their own opinions on the technology, especially given popular discourse surrounding AI’s impact on the workforce.

“We hear so often, ‘AI is going to replace you,’” Martin said. “It’s not that good. It can’t actually do all these things that people say. We get pulled in all of these different directions with what we hear, and so I really wanted to just let [students] have some time to see for themselves.”

Some students support this approach. Fabiola Barocio Prieto ’27, who participated in the hackathon over Sophomore Bootcamp, highly valued the experience.

“Especially in the tech world, you need to know how you’re going to be using AI in your projects, [because] a lot of companies actually encourage people to use AI in their work,” Barocio Prieto said. “So, being able to get that experience of ‘I want to create this, and I’m going to use AI to help me create it,’ is really valuable.”

The computer science department as a whole is also offering more opportunities for students to learn about AI. According to Professor of Computer Science and department chair Laura Toma, the department has decided to offer its core AI class, now taught by Farias, every semester—though it and many other AI-related courses are often overenrolled. The department has also hired two new faculty members, one of whom will specialize in AI.

Monday’s $50 million dollar gift to the College from Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings ’83 to engage with AI will allow the hiring of ten new faculty members that will further the College’s integration of AI into the curriculum. For Farias, Hastings’s gift presents an opportunity to further increase student engagement with AI, especially in an interdisciplinary fashion.

“Obviously, I hope that some of those professors will be computer science professors,” Farias said. “But if you broaden [the departments which include] more AI-related topics, then that’ll be great.”