Ethics Meets AI at Nazareth
Be prepared to have an impact.
Undergraduate programs in Nazareth's interdisciplinary Institute for Responsible Technology infuse ethics into each course.
- Be uniquely prepared to advance and navigate the future of artificial intelligence through Nazareth’s strong liberal arts foundation, professional preparation, hands-on internships and experiences, and ideals of service to the local and global community.
- Be ready to fill new jobs in companies, government agencies, and nonprofits — well prepared with ethical principles, governance practices, and social analysis strategies to guide policies and practices to create a just and equitable technological future.
Like business?
Become a business/nonprofit tech project leader or innovator
Major: business, artificial intelligence & innovation
- Guide organizations to optimize data they have
- Use artificial intelligence creatively and ethically to support strategic objectives
- Lead successful teams to implement AI applications
Want to focus on advocacy?
Become a policy maker, tech journalist or lawyer, compliance expert, or advocate in health care, education, business, non-profit, or finance.
Major: technology, artificial intelligence & society
- Use your expertise on the role of advanced technologies to advocate for positive change
- Guide others in understanding how technology shapes work, politics, health care, law, families, education, and democracy
Like computing? Problem solving?
Become a data analyst who uses tech to inform better decisions
Major: ethical data science
- Combine artificial intelligence, computing, ethical and sociological skills to solve social and business problems
- Learn practical computing skills and how to analyze data in a variety of fields
- Guide policy and practice around human and social consequences of data and technology
Like science, health, politics, other fields?
Add a minor
Understanding data and analytics gives you a leg up and relevant expertise whether you’re interested in management, government, public health, education, communications, finance, marketing, politics, or other fields.
Why Nazareth?
- Other colleges teach coding and technology. Nazareth’s community-connected Institute and its specialized degrees apply an ethical lens that future business leaders, policy makers, and other professionals need.
- Few institutions offer degree programs in the social and leadership aspects of artificial intelligence. Very few small colleges offer any artificial intelligence programs. Yet well-prepared professionals who understand societal implications are urgently needed to address the challenges, risks, and workforce needs.
- Nazareth receives national honors for promoting and connecting students with hands-on, practical experiences that immerse students in the work early and often, so they're ready to meet workforce needs. Starting the first semester, Nazareth students have personal career coaches through the on-campus Center for Life’s Work. An innovation-award-winning SPARK grant program helps cover costs for internships, research, and study abroad (including internships abroad). Extensive networks of alumni and other professionals are ready to provide experiential learning.
From its founding, Nazareth has been committed to social justice, has continually evolved to address societal/community needs, and challenges students to be innovators and changemakers.
Public Interest Technology
Nazareth was among the early members of the Public Interest Technology University Network in 2021 — alongside Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Carnegie Mellon University, and Stanford University — committed to building the nascent field of public interest technology and growing a new generation of civic-minded technologists.
Book & radio interview
Using AI effectively was the hot topic as WXXI Connections host Evan Dawson featured Nazareth's Institute for Responsible Technology Director Jeffrey Allan, co-author of a 2024 book, Writing AI Prompts for Dummies. Listen to the show »
Promise and Peril
- Artificial intelligence brings advantages and new possibilities as well as risks of harm to individuals, groups of people, and businesses/organizations. Example: Amazon had to scrap its resume-vetting software because it was based on data about current, overwhelmingly male engineers, so it consistently discriminated against women.
- The promises and perils of artificial intelligence are all around us, in facial recognition (helpful to unlock phones, but also used for mass surveillance and oppression), social media (free connecting, while your data is leveraged for profit), health care (technology can aid disease diagnosing, but also be inaccurate for certain groups based on age, gender, or race), and more.
- Who will ask the right questions, establish ethical guidelines, guide projects to avoid harm, and safeguard people, communities, and organizations from the risks?
Who will be ready to fill new jobs in companies, government agencies, and nonprofits, prepared with ethical principles, governance practices, and social analysis strategies to create a technological future that's healthy, positive, and fair?
“AI systems are trained using data that inevitably reflect the past. If a training data set contains inherent biases from past human decisions, these biases are codified and amplified by the system.”
From “Artificial intelligence can deepen social inequality. Here are 5 ways to help prevent this,” by Tiberio Caetano, Bill Simpson-Young, University of Sydney, theconversation.com
“Implementing ethical data science is as important as ensuring a self-driving car knows when to put on the brakes.”
Eric Siegel, author of the bestselling Predictive Analytics: The Power to Predict Who Will Click, Buy, Lie, or Die and a leading consultant on machine learning
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