By Louis DiPietro
On

 

Beginning in the Spring 2027 semester, a new Cornell course designed by teaching researchers in artificial intelligence will equip students to harness AI’s power and do so responsibly. 

The latest course from the Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science, “Everyday AI: Learning to use AI effectively and responsibly” (INFO 1720) offers students a kind of experiential AI user’s manual: Students will learn the fundamentals of the latest AI technologies, including large language models (LLMs), diffusion models, and agents, and explore hands-on activities and projects that highlight AI’s capabilities, limitations, and societal impacts. The course is open to all Cornell students, and no prior experience or technical background is required. 

Lisa Huang, assistant teaching professor of information science, and Rene Kizilcec, associate professor of information science, will co-teach the course, which counts for 3 credits and has space for 275 students. Students can enroll in “Everyday AI,” called “Introduction to Applied AI” in the Cornell class roster, during the Spring 2027 enrollment period, which begins November 11 for undergraduates.

“Understanding AI's capabilities and limitations helps students make informed choices about how to use it in their own lives, work, and communities,” Huang said. “I want students from every discipline to see themselves as people who can build with AI, critically assess what it does, and decide when it’s the right tool for a problem. This course challenges them to go beyond prompting for information, to create and evaluate tools that matter to them and society.”

As part of the course, students will complete a series of AI-supported projects. In the first, they will leverage AI to solve problems for themselves, in areas that align with their academic interests, from agriculture, engineering, and business to medicine, the arts, and public policy. Next, students will broaden their scope to build solutions for their communities or disciplines. Finally, they’ll collaborate in small groups to explore new areas to direct AI’s power. 

a female student with brown hair sits and works on her laptop in the hallway

AI is already part of how students study, work and make decisions, so we built a course that meets them there. We want students to leave confident enough to use AI well and skeptical enough to know when not to use it.

Rene Kizilcec
associate professor of information science

By the course’s conclusion, students will be able to explain how AI systems work, use AI responsibly, design and build AI tools, analyze the technology’s impact, and apply AI in new contexts. 

“AI is already part of how students study, work and make decisions, so we built a course that meets them there,” Kizilcec said. “We want students to leave confident enough to use AI well and skeptical enough to know when not to use it.”

“Everyday AI” is developed in consultation with: Matthew Wilkens, associate dean of education for Cornell Bowers and associate professor of information science; David Mimno, professor and chair of the Department of Information Science; Steven Jackson, vice provost for academic innovation at Cornell; and Sorin Lerner, dean of Cornell Bowers.

“Everyday AI” is the latest Cornell Bowers initiative to educate community members on AI’s potential and limitations. This year, the college launched an online summer course, “AI for All,” that taught high school and college students about LLMs, and will offer the course again next summer; it hosted a six-week workshop for college staff called “We Do AI,” and, next fFall, Cornell Bowers will launch two online master’s programs in AI.