This page will eventually include more details about this special topics course I am scheduled to teach in Fall 2025. For now, here’s the very basic description:
This online and asynchronous course will explore the relationships between writing, rhetoric, and artificial intelligence (AI), engaging with historical perspectives and contemporary debates. We will begin by discussing the early history of AI and the introduction of “computer assisted instruction” writing tools in the late 1970s and early 1980s. We’ll discuss the many problems of AI today, including copyright and trademark violations, the environmental and energy costs, and the hypothetical existential crisis of Artificial General Intelligence. We will also examine approaches to using AI in writing pedagogy and the practices of professional writers.
Required assignments for the course include robust and regular online discussion of readings and activities; a series of short “AI Writing Experiments;” a seminar paper/research project; and a low-stakes final where students have the opportunity to reflect on the readings and activities of the semester. Graduate students will also review a book of their choice (though approved by me) about AI, presenting their review in a short video.