
GENE 213:
Artificial Intelligence, Genes & Ethics
Instructors for this course:
Michael Snyder, PhD
Stanford W. Ascherman, MD, FACS, Professor in Genetics
Ronjon Nag, PhD
Adjunct Professor in Genetics, Stanford School of Medicine
Director, R42 Longevity Fund
Artem Trotsyuk, PhD
Principal, R42 Fund, Teaching Assistant, AI Ethics Postdoctoral Research Scholar, Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics
What is artificial intelligence and why is it sometimes biased?
- How will AI affect medicine to help us ?
- What are the conditions in which it may harm us?
95% of single-gene diseases we know of have no effective treatment yet if we modify a defective gene how might that affect a species in the long term?
- Is DNA “the code of life”? Or is the “code of life” the whole living organism in its complex, dynamic relationship with its environment?
- Will Earth one day be populated by beings who are different from us in their cognitive and physical abilities?
This course will look at the intersection of AI and genetics to analyze advances that could be made but also think about the ethical questions that should be asked when building algorithms or conducting genetic research. The course is designed to be accessible to many disciplines and there are no prerequisites.