Artificial intelligence technology is at the center of a rapid shift in how the world of work works. But the change hasn’t come without controversy. From sparking debates on ethical use to discussions about environmental impact, the rise of AI has prompted significant questions—including what it means for the future of public management and government.
A new course from the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at IU Indianapolis is addressing some of those questions, ripped straight from the headlines. And it’s doing so in an accessible and AI-friendly way.
The 3 credit hour course, “Public Management in an AI World,” is a once-a-week, online, elective where—unlike in many university classes—the use of AI is actually encouraged and even required.
Professor Doug Noonan created the course in response to trending topics surrounding AI and its place in our lives now and in the future. That means the class comes with quite a bit of freedom to explore AI and its many uses.
“I wanted to offer an elective I thought would be fun and that any student could jump into,” he says. “AI is going to be a huge part of this course. I want students to use it as much as they can. The more AI we bring into the class, the better.”
Noonan says the goal of his course isn’t to debate whether AI is necessarily good or bad. Rather, he explains, it’s to investigate how it could change public organizations in the future, the effects of those changes, and how those in government can adapt.
The course will cover many AI-centered topics, including copyright issues when training AI and how organizations can use the technology for monitoring, assisting, or even replacing human labor.
“Students really need to pay attention to this topic,’ he says. “There’s a real possibility, if not inevitability, that a lot of the jobs humans do in government can be replaced by AI.”
But he stresses this isn’t about students necessarily needing to change paths. Instead, it’s about learning to think differently about changes and recalibrating problem-solving careers.
Noonan says that’s why his class leaves space for both imagination and speculation, given how rapidly the world of AI is evolving. He acknowledges that even during the course of the semester, AI will make advances that outpace what he’s discussing. But he’s wanting students to learn how to think ahead of the curve, not on it.
He equates it to harnessing the power of electricity. The world didn’t have myriad applications for it at the time. Instead, the product came first, and the need came later. He says that’s what’s happening with AI.
“We don’t have any AI-sized holes in our lives that we need to fill right now,” he says. “But we are starting to create them.”
Those holes are already starting to appear in government workspaces. Noonan points pointing to things like public comment for government entities.
“People used to have to write letters, and now with emails, you can spam the system,” he explains. “But we need to look at what’s beyond emails—what’s the next step? What happens in the system when AI bots are giving the public comment?”
And, he goes on to ask, what happens when AI is also the agent receiving public comments? Essentially, he says, it may become bots talking to bots.
While many questions surrounding AI don’t have answers in the present, it’s the future he wants students to consider.
“I want them to be to be knowledgeable and excited about engaging with AI as they go forward in their careers,” he says. “I want them to think about this technology in smarter ways and figure out how to adapt to it, how to regulate it, how to sustain it, and how to better engage with it to understand how it how it fits into our world, communities, and our lives.”
