Al and the Future of Culture

Undergraduate / Graduate

What happens to culture when artificial intelligence becomes part of how we create it, experience it, and pass it on? This seminar explores how AI is reshaping fundamental aspects of cultural life in ways we are only beginning to understand. We examine AI not just as a tool for making things faster or cheaper, but as something increasingly woven into the fabric of culture itself: algorithms that shape what art and music we encounter, chatbots that become romantic companions, NPCs in games that feel increasingly lifelike, and generative systems that flood the internet with content of wildly varying quality. Through close examination of specific cases and theoretical engagement with cultural sociology, we ask how these changes might alter what gets created, what gets valued, how people learn to be cultural beings, and whether culture becomes richer or poorer as a result.