AI Pasts and Futures: Writing with AI from the Archives to the Agent

Catalog description

During your time at UCSB, ChatGPT and other Large Language Models have changed every aspect of university writing. This class takes up AI generative writing as an object of inquiry and a space for experimentation including practical, critical, and ethical considerations. There will be a tour of AI technology, from its historical origins, into the archives, beyond ChatGPT and into speculative futures of cutting edge technology. Students will 1) present on ethical dimensions of technology, 2) write archival research on the history of technology, and 3) end the class with a collaborative showcase of human and AI writing and art.