Curriculum

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Descriptions

MLDS 490: Human-AI Collaboration for Decision-Making

Description

MLDS graduates enter organizations where technical capability and strategic decision-making increasingly converge. They are expected to build and deploy machine learning systems, as well as advise on their use and lead teams that depend on them. This course focuses on a question technical training often leaves open: how does Human AI collaboration change the way individuals, teams, and organizations make decisions?

The course is organized around three practical frameworks for diagnosing and improving human-AI collaboration:

1. The Jagged Frontier
   AI performs unevenly across tasks, and the boundary between what it does well and poorly is often surprising and constantly changing. Students learn to identify where that frontier lies and how task interdependencies complicate it.
   
   
2. Centaurs, Cyborgs, and Self-Automators
   Human-AI collaboration can take different forms, from a clear division of labor to deeply integrated work to full delegation. Students examine which mode fits a given problem and what it requires for workflow, quality control, skills, and accountability. 
   
   
3. Substitute, Enlarge, Reconfigure
   AI can replace existing processes, extend what organizations can already do, or reshape roles, routines, and decision structures. Students learn to recognize when simple substitution leaves value on the table and when deeper redesign is needed.

Together, these frameworks give students a practical toolkit for asking, "Where is AI reliable?" How should humans and AI work together? And how should the surrounding system change to capture the most value?