Ethics of Data and Artificial Intelligence Certificate

Interdisciplinary Skills for a Changing World

AI raises urgent moral and political questions that technical expertise—while undoubtedly important—cannot answer on its own. Technological know-how can tell us what AI systems can do, but not what they should do. Answering that requires training in normative reasoning, conceptual analysis, and the kind of systematic ethical thinking that philosophy has refined over centuries. Questions about justice, accountability, creativity, transparency, ownership, and privacy, about the opportunities and limits of both human and algorithmic decision-making, are not solely engineering problems; they are fundamentally philosophical ones.

Our certificate program trains students to bridge the disciplinary gap between the humanities and technical disciplines—an interdisciplinary skill set that is increasingly sought after across sectors. This is reflected in a striking trend in hiring. According to Indeed Hiring Lab, Ethical and Responsible AI job postings have been growing steadily, from practically non-existent in 2019 to almost 1% of all AI job postings by 2025. That doesn’t sound like a lot, but it equates to over 100,000 professionals with expertise in AI ethics and governance being sought annually.

People with interdisciplinary humanities training bring unique, highly sought-after skills to the table. There is growing expert agreement that acquiring an interdisciplinary skill set across technical and non-technical fields can be a good way to hedge against risks in an evolving labor force. And while the age of generative AI has certainly brought increased uncertainty into different job markets, the prospects of grads with a philosophy/ethics focus have actually experienced a positive trajectory in 2022-24: according to a study published in The Economist based on surveys of recent college graduates from the National Association of Colleges and Employers, the positive percentage change in employment was +4% for philosophers, while the change was negative for other fields more directly impacted by AI. Graduates of such our certificate program are well-positioned to pursue careers in the tech industry, in government and policy where AI regulation is a fast-moving frontier, or in journalism and media, as well as in sectors as varied as finance and education. For those with academic ambitions, the certificate also provides an excellent springboard to graduate study in one of today’s most intellectually exciting interdisciplinary fields.