U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy will return for another semester of teaching at LSU, the university has announced.
His new, 4000-level course will be offered next spring by the E.J. Ourso College of Business’ Department of Public Administration. It’s called Special Topics: Ethics and Regulation of Artificial Intelligence.
According to LSU, the new class will “explore the ethical and moral concerns associated with the use and implementation of AI and algorithms,” focusing on the changes AI poses to established human conventions and addressing the pressing issues of those changes.
This class comes as one in a wave of new AI centric courses the university aims to offer in the spring semester. LSU was one of the few universities of its caliber to create an AI-centric class as early on as it did, LSU Provost Roy Haggerty previously told the Reveille.
Cassidy will co-teach the course with another professor, Roy Heidelburg, the public administration department chair of the business college. This fall, Cassidy co-taught a 2000-level class with the Ogden Honors College called National Issues: Strategies and Tactics, with instructor Mike Rolfsen.
“Senator Bill Cassidy is a leader in the federal efforts to regulate artificial intelligence, and he will bring a unique and rare perspective to the classroom,” Heidelberg said in a release. “By combining the philosophical and ethical concerns of AI with the urgent need to address its implementation, students will be given an exceptional opportunity to combine theory and practice.”
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The new course is named under the designation PADM 4000 in the university’s schedule booklet and offers 15 total seats to prospective students. It’ll count for three credit hours and will meet from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Fridays.
No prerequisites are required for the class, and it can be counted as an undergraduate or graduate credit.
Cassidy grew up in Baton Rouge, and he holds a bachelor’s and medical degrees from LSU. Early in his career, he practiced medicine.
Cassidy’s been a U.S. senator representing Louisiana since 2015. Before that, he served as a U.S. representative and before that as a Louisiana state senator. He’s also previously taught at LSU’s medical school.