By Brooke Ingemi
Artificial intelligence is rapidly becoming a part of everyday life, transforming how we learn, think, and communicate, while also raising deep questions about what the future will look like. Previously confined to computer science labs, AI now touches nearly every field, from art and law to environmental science and economics. As a result, students and faculty alike are increasingly recognizing both AI’s promise and its peril and are searching for spaces to think critically about these issues.
That is why the AI in the Liberal Arts (AILA) initiative was created. Started by Professor Lee Spector of the Computer Science Department, AILA brings together students and faculty across disciplines to explore AI’s wide-ranging impacts. Made up of Spector and a team of student assistants, the initiative was born out of necessity — a recognition that while AI brings forth exciting opportunities, it also presents new challenges that must be tackled head-on.
Spector first pitched the idea to former President Biddy Martin in 2020, recognizing early on that everyone would eventually have to confront the rapid pace of progress in AI. “I can’t predict timelines or exactly what functionality we’ll have when, but what is happening with AI is going to challenge a lot of fundamental ideas,” Spector recalled thinking at the time. “Whether you’re in political science, whether you’re in media, whether you’re in religion, pretty much every area is going to be foundationally challenged in some way or another … Humanity has to deal with this.”
Spector also noted that the problems related to AI are particularly complex. “It’s a multidimensional issue with all sorts of complicated pros and cons, and they interact in ways we don’t know yet,” he said. “You cannot operate as you have with almost any other challenge, where you think you know what the challenge is…because this is so dynamic and so unpredictable.”
With this in mind, Spector then considered the question: how do we deal with such a complex issue? Given that AI raises important legal and moral questions, he believes that the solutions cannot come from one discipline alone. While most people think these issues should be handled by computer scientists or corporate boardrooms, Spector has a different view of who should be tackling these problems. “The best way that humanity can grapple with this issue is through people who know lots of stuff about lots of different areas and have open minds and energy to try and focus on this,” he said. For him, that makes the liberal arts the ideal setting. “If I wanted to put together the dream team of people to think deeply about these issues, it would look a heck of a lot like a liberal arts college — including the students,” he said.
Students, he emphasized, especially ones at liberal arts colleges, are essential participants in this work.
To carry out its mission, AILA relies on a team of ten student assistants. One of those student assistants is Hena Ershadi, a senior at Amherst triple-majoring in Computer Science, Law, Jurisprudence and Social Thought (LJST), and Mathematics. As part of the events team, she manages AILA’s website, coordinates collaborations with campus organizations, develops event ideas, and organizes the logistics that bring AILA’s events to life.
Hena’s path to developing an interest in AI wasn’t what one might expect. “I’m a computer science major, so obviously, AI is something we talk about a lot, but I didn’t really go into it with a computer science perspective,” she said. “It was honestly more of a topic of discussion in my LJST classes than it was in my CS classes.”
Through those LJST courses, Hena began to see how AI raises complex questions that affect real people — whether by transforming education, creating uncertainty in the job market, or influencing other aspects of life in ways that we are only just beginning to understand. As Hena explained, “AI is impacting everyone, whether they know it or not.” Her insights reflect a truth that AILA embraces: AI is not just a computer science problem; it is a human one.
Luckily, as Spector and Hena pointed out, more people have started to recognize this truth over the last few years and are now eager to engage in these important conversations. Spector noted that, until recently, warning people about the potential impact of AI “required more of a story.” Now, “the main thing that has changed is that everybody has direct experience with it…and everybody has their own concerns.”
To address these growing concerns, AILA has created a variety of ways for students and faculty to explore the social, ethical, and practical implications of AI. The initiative hosts book clubs, movie screenings, panel discussions, and guest speaker talks, all designed to examine both the positive and negative impacts of AI across multiple disciplines.
One of AILA’s recent events featured local art lawyer Kate Lucas from Northampton, who discussed the impact of AI on copyright law, intellectual property, and artistic creation. The talk was followed by a panel discussion with Spector, LJST Professor Mark Firmani, and Art and Art History Professors Niko Vicario and Yael Rice, highlighting how AI intersects with ethics, law, and creativity.
AILA also hosts recurring events such as the AI in Sustainability Hackathon, which brings together students in collaboration with the Office of Sustainability to develop AI-driven solutions aimed at improving sustainability at Amherst. Another annual event for AILA is their Undergraduate Research Conference, where students from Amherst, the Five Colleges, and other Massachusetts schools present research on AI through the lens of various disciplines, as well as participate in collaborative workshops.
AILA continues to grow, with many upcoming projects on the horizon. Some of these projects include a podcast as well as additional events examining AI’s role in other areas, such as sexuality and religion.
Through all of these efforts, AILA strives to create a ripple effect in the broader community. “We’re hoping to take our little AILA initiative and influence the start of potential organizations similar to AILA around other campuses,” Hena said.
Achieving that vision, both she and Spector emphasize, relies heavily on the initiative responding to community input. “I think this is only going to really be successful if it’s organic and if it comes out of what people actually care about and the challenges they want to learn about and raise,” Spector said. “We welcome everybody who has some concern about these issues to connect in one way or another. I am always open to hearing from anybody in this community about some event idea, or some activity, or something that they think would be meaningful that connects with these things.”
Hena echoed that message, encouraging others to join the conversation by attending events or reaching out to the AILA team to contribute personal perspectives on AI’s growing role in society. “Anyone who wants to chat with me about it is more than welcome to,” she said.
As AI continues to evolve and spread, these conversations will grow even more important. AILA offers a space for minds across disciplines to come together — thinking critically, creatively, and collaboratively in the liberal arts tradition about what it means to live well in a world increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence.
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