NLSIU’s Online and Hybrid Certificate Course in Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights

During December 2022-January 2023, the National Law School of India University offered an Online and Hybrid Certificate Course in Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights.  This course was offered as part of the “Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights” Project with the support of the Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany in Bangalore.  The course garnered huge interest, especially from working professionals across various sectors such as academia, the IT industry, policy organizations, government, and others.

Through a combination of online and in-person teaching sessions, specially curated reading materials, and video recordings of practitioners in the relevant fields, the course provided participants a broad understanding of the areas of AI and Human Rights, the interactions and conflicts between them in India, as well as tools and methods of thinking about and resolving tensions between the two. The course involved 16 hours of teaching and 32 hours of study materials to those enrolled into the course.

Ms. Srijoni Sen, one of the faculty members anchoring this course, said: “In discussions around AI policy in India, the focus has been mostly on the adoption related challenges, rather than broader societal and ethical concerns of AI. Even the limited discussions on these concerns are often framed as a trade-off between human rights and advancement of technology. It is important to recognise that many of the cherished global values with regard to human rights are going to be questioned in new ways because of increasing AI adoption. Therefore, examining the adoption of AI and its impact on human rights within the broader social, cultural, economic, and legal contexts of India becomes important for traversing these challenges.”

Modules

Module 1: An Introduction to Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights

This module provides a basic understanding of the areas of AI and Human Rights and equips participants who may not have a deep understanding of either one or both central areas of the course with an introductory framework to these areas. Participants will be guided through a basic explanation of how AI works, and the global and domestic legal frameworks governing the field of Human Rights. This module shall be conducted through online classes, supplemented by reading and video materials.

Module 2: AI and Human Rights: Conflicts

In this module, participants will study how Artificial Intelligence technology has been in conflict with Human Rights across the world, and more particularly, in India. Participants will learn how such conflicts emerged, and what attempts were made to resolve them. The module will also provide suggestions on approaches that can be used to pre-empt and to resolve such tensions. This module shall be conducted through online classes, supplemented by reading and video materials.

Module 3: Workshop: Solution Crafting

For this module, participants will spend two days at the NLSIU campus in Bengaluru for an in-person workshop in which they will attempt to find solutions to existing or hypothetical problems caused by friction between AI and Human Rights. Participants would work in teams, and with the guidance of course faculty, develop proposed solutions that they would present before their cohort for discussion and debate.

Applications

The course received 884 applications. However, admissions were limited to a smaller cohort for more focused discussions. At the end of the course, several participants of the course were certified. Certification required attending the in-person workshop and online classes, and completing the response paper and final presentation.

Reflecting on the profile of the cohort, Srijoni said, “The course brought together a diverse set of applicants. This included professionals from across the tech sector (from both startups and larger corporations), healthcare and medical professionals as well as doctoral researchers, and early career academics working on AI from different perspectives.”

We hope to offer more iterations of this course in the future.