The LSU student government is calling on the university to strengthen its education in artificial intelligence, particularly for students outside the Division of Computer Science and Engineering.
The Student Senate passed legislation last week requesting an online AI fundamentals certificate available to all students that would offer training on basic AI use and explore the ethical and legal considerations of the technology.
“AI is going to affect every major across the board,” said junior Aaron Lomastro, co-author of the legislation and a member of the Student Alliance for AI Regulation. “It already is. It’s not fair that only these sort of technology-specific majors are receiving these courses. We think it’s important that every major and every student has equal opportunity in preparing themselves with just a foundational understanding of what AI is.”
LSU currently offers multiple courses in AI for computer science students, including machine learning, artificial intelligence and applied deep learning, according to Dr. James Ghawaly, assistant professor of computer science.
“Because of the increased demand, we are growing the course offerings in computer science,” Ghawaly said. “We have almost 15 new courses that we’re planning on building.”
Students can also enroll in an interdisciplinary course between business, computer science and the honors college that gives them the opportunity to work on AI solutions for local companies and industry partners. The class is selective because of the real-world demands of the student teams, Ghawaly said.
He said that “hype mongering” has driven increased interest in AI across the university, and that some students are worried the only way to succeed in their careers is by learning how to use it.
“There are some fields where I think that’s true,” Ghawaly said. “I think we want to offer something broader outside of computer science.”
LSU Online offers an AI Prompting certificate as well as an AI Bootcamp, both of which are paid. The boot camp costs $10,995 and takes 26 weeks to complete, according to the LSU Online website.
The boot camp is “not accessible to a lot of students,” said junior Benjamin Goldstein, bill author and member of the Student Alliance for AI Regulation. “Almost $10,000 in extra loans is rough for a lot of people.”
Goldstein said the student government is proposing a free certificate available to any LSU student with a focus on the elementary principles of AI.
“I’m really trying to bridge the gap from the people who are in the know about AI and are on the frontier of doing research on it with the people who don’t really know much about the technical side but realize that this is a really high-impact thing,” Goldstein said.
He said many students rely on AI but are not AI literate, meaning they don’t always understand how to use the technology to enhance their learning. Instead, they use it as a shortcut, he said.
“A lot of what people are using AI to do is just run their homework assignments through it, and if they have online exams, they ask it their exam questions,” Goldstein said. “It’s essentially a ‘get out of jail free’ card for any assignment you didn’t do or if you cheat on an exam. I think it’s such a poor use of AI, because it worsens your understanding of the concepts.”
Goldstein and Lomastro said their next step is to work with LSU Online and the LSU Division of Computer Science and Engineering to fund and develop the certificate. They have already received support from some faculty members, Lomastro said.
“It would be a noncredit course where they could receive an AI fluency certificate that they’d be able to put on their LinkedIn, et cetera,” Lomastro said.
They are also urging department heads and college deans to implement standardized AI guidance and policy. Goldstein emphasized that the goal of the certificate isn’t to promote universal AI use but to give students the tools to adopt it effectively for their field of study and understand its legal and ethical limitations.
“This isn’t, like, rah-rah AI,” Goldstein said. “I don’t envision this turning into that. I think this is a chance to provide students an unbiased and factual perspective on a big event happening in the world around them and a chance for them to also do their own research.”