Class is in Session: A Look Inside My Business Applications of AI Course
Look over my shoulder as I teach Biola students about AI
Starting tonight, I will be teaching a course here at Biola University with the title “Business Applications of Artificial Intelligence.” The course description reads:
Students will learn about a variety of topics related to the use of Artificial Intelligence while also gaining skill in using a variety of AI tools. While the primary focus of the course will be AI's implications for business, it will also have a broader focus on concerns related to ethics and human flourishing. All of this will be embedded in a deeper understanding of how these tools and topics should be understood and used to love God and love our neighbors.
This class is part of a larger set of requirements for students who want to complete the “Business Analytics and Artificial Intelligence” concentration or minor. I also have some MBA students taking it as an elective.
In our first meeting tonight, we will focus on the basics: what is AI and how should we think about using it? I will be introducing them to three foundational documents that we will be using as focal points this semester:
The first two documents primarily focus on how we should think about AI from a personal use level, while the third is the foundational document for Gloo’s research into how Large Language Models are aligned with human flourishing. Starting from these three documents, the class will begin to explore how specific use cases of AI (both personal and business) should be evaluated.
Further reading this semester will include All in on AI, AI Snake Oil, and a variety of online resources including
’s Substack and subscribing to The Rundown AI. And of course I am asking them to subscribe to this newsletter as well!Beyond this research, the class will be involved in several activities during the semester, including joining a team for the upcoming Gloo AI hackathon and completing a vibe coding project.
I plan on posting at least once a week with updates from the class and the activities that my students are undertaking. In the end, we should all have a better idea of how businesses can effectively use AI in a way that also has positive implications for human flourishing and faith.