Data Science: An Artificial Ecosystem

This course aims to introduce students to the world of the data science via articles published in the Harvard Data Science Review, a global forum disseminating everything data science and data science for everyone. The course emphasizes the evolutionary nature of the data science enterprise as an artificial ecosystem, where the phrase artificial shares a similar connotation as it is in the phrase artificial intelligence (AI). However, unlike the common algorithmic or robotic depictions of AI, this course espouses a panoramic view of data science, from philosophical conceptualization of data to interpretation and policy implications of statistical findings and to the re-use of data for addressing scientific replicability and reliability. Topics such as generative AI, data generation, and data privacy are explored from multiple perspectives to demonstrate the necessity of the panoramic approach. Questions such as what is intelligence or what is data require philosophical contemplation, while assessing the positive and negative impact of generative AI or digital technologies in general demand careful sociological, computational, and statistical thinking. Furthermore, determining how to ensure effective and safe human-computer interaction requires advanced data science theory and methods. Throughout the course, students engage with and critique a broad range of data science articles that incorporate perspectives from computer science, statistics, philosophy, social sciences, and other fields of study. During course meetings, there are many opportunities to discuss some of these articles with the authors themselves.