Ai and Human Decision-Making

Aim of the course are: a) to build a foundational knowledge of the main features of human learning, reasoning and decision making, their unique strengths and weaknesses compared to current AI, and how AI can support (vs endanger) them; b) the legal provisions, principles, and concepts that may shield individuals from the most severe dangers of the digital environment.

Unit 1

Knowledge and understanding
· Understand the generalities of human cognitive processes as interdependent functions evolved and adapted to a natural physical and social environment
· The multi-layered human intelligence: automatic vs controlled processes (both for learning and reasoning)
· What's hard for humans and easy for machines, what's easy for humans and hard for machines

Applying knowledge and understanding
· How AI can integrate and support human judgments
· How AI can mislead and endanger human judgments

Unit 2

Knowledge and understanding
· Understand the ideal standards of decision-making both in the individual and interactive context
· Understand why people fail to cope with ideal standards
· Heuristics in decision-making and associated biases
· Prospect theory and associated formal modeling of decision-making
· Understand how indirect suggestions can influence decisions (nudging)
· Human metacognitive abilities and their limits
· Optimal advice integration and human departures from optimality

Applying knowledge and understanding
· Determination of the optimal course of action in different contexts, with examples from clinical decision-making and economic decisions
· Analysis of the typical decision course of individuals, with critical analysis of their limits
· Analysis of human advice integration, with critical analysis of their limits

Unit 3

Knowledge and understanding
· Contextualized knowledge of foundational legal principles and concepts related to data law and technology regulation
· Insight into the challenges that digitization poses for the legal environment
· Knowledge of possible policy solutions to the future of data regulation and new technologies

Applying knowledge and understanding
· The ability to critically evaluate key concepts of data laws, including the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the IP, the Data Act, and the Artificial Intelligence Act