Shakespeare never used ChatGPT. Juliet might have ripped up a love note from Romeo if she knew a bot wrote it. But modern students are using artificial intelligence to conduct research on Shakespeare and write about it. 

Michael Gavin, an English professor at the University of South Carolina, created a series of new courses exploring how AI will change the reading, writing and study of literature. This fall, he taught an honors course about AI and Shakespeare, using machine learning to study the playwright’s canon. 

“Shakespeare is all about organized chaos,” he says. “AI is all about developing a set of statistical tools for making sense of that chaos.” 

An English class with computer programming and machine learning is just one of many ways that the USC College of Arts and Sciences has invited AI into classrooms and research labs. In the two years since ChatGPT stunned the world with its human-like conversation capabilities, faculty in the college have created new courses and conducted research that explores AI’s potential and establishes how to use it ethically. 

Understanding these systems ... will prevent us from being fearful or mistrusting of these systems and not being able to use their full power. 

― Rutvik Desai, Professor of Psychology 

A new technology tool 

AI chatbots and image generators raise concerns about the ethics of using them for homework, job applications, political ads and more. This spring, philosophy professor Leah McClimans will invite students to take a deeper look at the ethics of using AI by seeing it as a tool like other technologies that came before it. 

“Philosophy helps us to see that the ethical issues presented by AI aren't new," McClimans says. “When we worry about AI, we often worry about how the companies who control it will use AI to make profits and what their profit-seeking will do to the rest of us.” 

McClimans’ new AI Ethics course will let students act like technology entrepreneurs and work through ethical issues about using AI in business. In addition to class readings and discussions, they will develop product and service ideas at the Richland County Library makerspace. 

Throughout the college, AI discussions and assignments have been added to classes in business writing, mapmaking, statistics, neuroscience and more. Biology professor Tad Dallas built a server so students in his class and research lab can get experience with machine learning, while other biology faculty ask students to illustrate new concepts with the help of AI. 

I'm really interested in teaching students how to use AI productively, creatively, and critically. 

―Michael Gavin, Associate Professor of English 

That prospect of AI illustrations has raised many concerns about the future of artists. But design professor Meena Khalili will teach a course in Spring 2025 about how human designers can work alongside AI tools, keeping their work ethical and creative. 

Khalili says that AI is just another technology in a designer’s toolbelt, not a threat to be feared. “It makes us more efficient, faster and more attuned to the needs of our users and the viewers,” she says.  

Khalili says creatives need to understand AI and also join the conversation about how it should be developed. 

“It's really important for us as artists to be part of exploring AI because we are the message makers," she says. “We make messages that explore the human experience.” 

Understanding how to use AI effectively 

Recent research by psychology professor Rutvik Desai emphasizes Khalili’s point about the importance of having humans involved. His work showed that large language models—the engines of AI chatbots—are bad at identifying whether two words go together because the model assumes that all data fed to them make sense. 

This spring, Desai will teach a psychology course that probes what it means to be intelligent, with insights from psychology, philosophy, neuroscience and computer science. 

“Understanding these systems will help us avoid being too gullible or too trusting of the systems and overestimating their abilities,” Desai says. “On the other hand, it will prevent us from being fearful or mistrusting of these systems and not being able to use their full power.” 

Understanding how to use AI’s power is another reason Gavin is using AI in English courses, whether students are analyzing Shakespeare with algorithms or writing a paper with the help of a chatbot and evaluating the results. There’s a lot more to it than writing one prompt then cutting and pasting the result. 

“I'm really interested in teaching students how to use AI productively, creatively, and critically, in a way that they're just not going to get from any other contexts," Gavin says. “Students in the future are all going to be reading and writing and composing using these AI tools. They need the skills to use them critically.” 

AI Courses Available Spring 2025 at USC 

Get hands-on experience with AI and spend time thinking about big questions in these courses available in Spring 2025. 

Course	Professor	Description
PHIL 226, Artificial Intelligence Ethics	Leah McClimans	Learn about the ethical and social dimensions of artificial intelligence by doing research and development for an imaginary tech startup company. This course includes hands-on experience at the Richland Library Makerspace.
ENGL 463-H, Business Writing	Gareth Rees-White	Get practical experience with writing memos, reports and other business documents while also exploring the ethics of using artificial intelligence. AI can be used to complete writing assignments provided the students critically analyze the results.
ARTS 346 H01, Process + Systems for Emerging Design: Co-Creation with Artificial Intelligence	Meena Khalili	Combine art and technology skills to learn how to design with the help of artificial intelligence. What does AI make possible, where does it fall short, and what is the role of human designers? The course includes a workshop with Helen Armstrong, a design professor nationally known for her work with AI.
PSYC 888 / PSYC 589, Minds, Brains and Artificial Intelligence (Special Topics in Psychology)	Rutvik Desai	Study what philosophy and science teach about what it means for natural or artificial systems to be intelligent, using insights from philosophy, psychology, computer science and neuroscience.
BIOL 423 - Medicinal Botany	Andy Schumpert	Learn how plants affect human health with a focus on the biochemical factors that create the effect. Use AI to create images that illustrate new concepts.
BIOL 302-001 - Cell and Molecular Biology	Amanda Zeigler	While studying the structure of cells cells and organisms, learn how to use AI to create study guides and study questions.
MATH 328 - Mathematical Concepts for Data Analytics	Megan McKay	Learn the mathematical concepts that are used to make large language models and other forms of AI work. In addition to studying fundamental concepts, spend time with current research that is using math to take AI forward.