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CCAI9022 Artificial Intelligence
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Course Description
AI is the ultimate disruptor in every profession today. Across every sector—from law and medicine to the creative arts and public policy—its rapid ascent forces us to answer a critical question: How do we harness its transformative power without eventually being replaced? Moving past the popular hyperbole of AI apocalypses and utopias, this course is co-designed by academics and practitioners to show students how digital technology is reshaping the ways positive impact can be realized and what they can do to overcome the disruption.
In this course, students will engage directly with startup founders, tech regulators, “intrepreneurs”, and impact investors who will share behind-the-scenes stories on what it actually takes to deploy AI and other Web 3.0 technologies productively. You will hear from tech founders on their struggles to identify service gaps where their tech solutions outperform existing practices; from regulators on balancing growth opportunities unleashed by AI with public interests and concerns; and from managers of established businesses on how they build cross-disciplinary teams to lead the digital catch-up against agile challengers.
Whether you aspire to build the next market-defining tech startup, design policies for emerging technologies, or future-proof your own career against automation, these insights provide the critical framework and leadership tools essential to anyone hoping to secure their own place in the 21st century workplace.
Course Learning Outcomes
On completing the course, students will be able to:
- Critically assess existing institutional frameworks and their effectiveness in promoting good governance in the context of AI-driven disruption.
- Utilize key theories from political science, particularly those related to institutional analysis, to understand the implications of AI on societal structures and governance.
- Reflect on the ethical implications of technological innovation, including issues of fairness, privacy, and the distribution of costs and benefits within society.
- Propose institutional designs that balance the need for innovation with the necessity of resilience against socio-economic disruptions caused by technological changes.
- Foster interdisciplinary discussions on the governance of innovation, drawing on insights from diverse fields and industry practices.
Offer Semester and Day of Teaching
First semester (Wed)
Study Load
| Activities | Number of hours |
| Lectures | 24 |
| Tutorials | 12 |
| Reading / Self-study | 24 |
| Assessment: Essay / Report writing | 6 |
| Assessment: Group project | 34 |
| Assessment: Presentation (incl preparation) | 20 |
| Total: | 120 |
Assessment: 100% coursework
| Assessment Tasks | Weighting |
| Interview report | 20 |
| Video report | 20 |
| Group project and presentation | 25 |
| Poster presentation | 15 |
| Class Participation | 20 |
Required Reading
- Acemoglu, D., & Johnson, S. (2023). Power and Progress. Boston: PublicAffairs. [Chap. 1 “Control over Technology”]
- Bradford, A. (2023). Digital Empires: The Global Battle to Regulate Technology. Oxford: Oxford University Press. [Part 1 “Introduction”]
- Brynjolfsson, E., & McAfee, A. (2014). The Second Machine Age. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. [Chap. 11 “Implications”]
- Crawford, K. (2021). Atlas of AI. New Haven: Yale University Press. [Chap. 1 “Earth”]
- De Vries, A. (2023). The growing energy footprint of artificial intelligence. Cell Joule, 7(10), 2238-2244.
- Dodhia, R. (2024). AI For Social Good: Using Artificial Intelligence to Save the World. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons Inc. [Chap. 6 “Putting Safeguards Around AI”]
- Eubanks, V. (2017). Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor. New York: St. Martin’s Press. [Chap. 5 “The Digital Poorhouse”]
- Fruchterman, J. (2025). Technology for Good: How Nonprofit Leaders are Using Software and Data to Solve Our Most Pressing Social Problems. Massachusetts: The MIT Press. [Chap. 2 “The Top Bad Ideas in Tech for Good”]
- Kissinger, H. A., Mundie, C., & Schmidt, E. (2024). Genesis – Artificial Intelligence, Hope and the Human Spirit New York: Little, Brown and Company. [Chap. 4 “Politics”]
- Lee, K. F. (2018). AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. [Chap. 3 “China’s Alternate Internet Universe”]
- Li, P., Yang, J., Islam, M.A. & Ren, S. (2025). Making AI Less ‘Thirsty’. Communications of the ACM, 68(7), 54-61.
- Mitchell, M. (2019). Artificial Intelligence: A Guide for Thinking Humans. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. [Chap. 14 “On Understanding”]
- Mollick, E. (2024). Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI. New York: Portfolio/Penguin. [Chap. 6: “AI as a Coworker” / Chap. 8 “AI as a Coach”]
- Nissenbaum, H. (2009). Privacy in Context: Technology, Policy, and the Integrity of Social Life. Stanford: Stanford Law Books. [Chap. 4 “Locating the Value in Privacy”]
- Schneier, B., & Sanders, N. E. (2025). Rewiring Democracy: How AI Will Transform Our Politics, Government and Citizenship. Massachusetts: The MIT Press. [Chap. “Principles for AI that Helps Democracy”]
- Suleyman, M., & Bhaskar, M. (2023). The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the Twenty-first Century’s Greatest Dilemma. New York: Crown. [Chap. 14 “Ten Steps Toward Containment”]
- Susskind, D. (2020). A World Without Work. New York: Henry Holt and Co. [Chap. 5 “The Task Encroachment” / Chap. 9 “Education and Its Limits”]
Course Co-ordinator and Teacher(s)
| Course Co-ordinator | Contact |
| Professor K.N. Chan Department of Politics and Public Administration, Faculty of Social Sciences |
Tel: 3917 7862 Email: kwachan@hku.hk |
| Teacher(s) | Contact |
| Professor K.N. Chan Department of Politics and Public Administration, Faculty of Social Sciences |
Tel: 3917 7862 Email: kwachan@hku.hk |
| Ms L.W.L. Chan Department of Politics and Public Administration, Faculty of Social Sciences |
Email: lindacwl@hku.hk |