The Georgetown University College of Arts & Sciences (CAS) will launch an artificial intelligence (AI) certificate program for undergraduate students beginning in Fall 2026, the university announced March 17.
The College’s new nine-credit certificate will consist of three classes focusing on different aspects of AI usage. The certificate aims to provide students with a liberal arts approach to AI through ethical, practical and interdisciplinary lenses.
Sue Lorenson, the College’s vice dean for undergraduate education, said the three-course format was intentionally designed to expose students to the different facets of AI.
“We wanted to lean into what Georgetown generally, and the College of Arts & Sciences in particular, does well: an interdisciplinary, liberal arts approach to big questions,” Lorenson wrote to The Hoya. “We weren’t trying to replicate what a School of Engineering or Computer Science would do; we wanted to do what we could offer that those programs can’t.”
The certificate’s courses include “The Problem of AI,” which focuses on the ethical and social intersections of AI; “The Science of AI,” which examines the mechanisms and boundaries of AI; and “The Applications of AI,” which explores the practical implementation of AI.
David Edelstein, dean of the College, said the combination of technical and social coursework sets the certificate apart from similar programs at other universities.
“The three categories of courses comprising the certificate — the science of AI, the applications of AI, and the problem of AI — include both the technical aspects of AI, but also attention to its societal and ethical implications,” Edelstein wrote to The Hoya. “That attention — and the humanistic foundation that informs it — distinguishes the College’s liberal arts approach to these issues.”
The certificate follows a Feb. 23 announcement from Interim University President Robert M. Groves to gradually incorporate Gemini, Google’s AI assistant and other generative AI tools into university programs and processes to aid faculty, staff and students.
Lorenson said the three domains are designed to work in collaboration with one another.
“It’s a three-legged stool: a student who takes only the ethics course may leave without sufficient technical grounding to evaluate the claims they’re critiquing,” Lorenson wrote. “A student who only takes the science course may leave without the frameworks to ask whether any of it should be built in the first place. And a student who only learns to use AI tools fluently in a particular field, without the ethical or technical foundations, is just a power-user, not a thoughtful one.”
Zach Krivonak (CAS ’29), a current government student in the College who has closely followed the development of AI, said his classes have already begun to grapple with AI.
“My ethics professor has already had two assignments where we’ve had to incorporate AI in some way,” Krivonak told The Hoya. “One of them was to interview AI and test its ethical boundaries and then the other one was also an interview about interviewing a person and using AI with that, so it’s shown up in coursework.”
Lorenson said students will be able to tailor the certificate to their own academic interests.
“The certificate is intentionally choose-your-own-adventure,” Lorenson wrote. “A computer science student might already have the technical background, but then become intrigued by the policy or ethics angle, while another student might take an ethics of AI course as a core requirement and then realize they want to learn more about how AI works (science) and is being used (applications).”
Krivonak said the certificate may be useful for students interested in technology.
“I could see where this would be useful for all people, particularly if they have an interest in technology or are taking the tech and ethics minor, which is pretty popular, so I could see that being important there,” Krivonak said.
Lorenson said she hopes students will connect what they learn from the certificate to their individual academic interests.
“A government major might leave the program with a better understanding of how AI affects democratic institutions, national security, regulation, and public decision-making,” Lorenson wrote. “A biology or pre-med student might focus on how AI is transforming scientific research and healthcare delivery.”
“The specific takeaways will differ, and that’s by design,” Lorenson added. “But what we hope every student shares, regardless of their starting point, is the capacity to think critically and carefully about AI’s role in their field and in the world.”
