# What universities are doing USC's Viterbi School of Engineering is launching an inaugural four-year undergraduate major in artificial intelligence housed in the Mark and Mary Stevens School of Computing and Artificial Intelligence. The curriculum is designed to teach students how to build models and apply those systems to areas such as drug discovery, robotics and agriculture.
UCLA has opened what officials describe as the nation's first standalone Department of Digital Humanities. Its new bachelor's degree will teach students how to integrate digital tools and automated systems into disciplines like history, languages, the arts, sociology, archaeology and studies of race and gender.
UC Santa Barbara will also begin an undergraduate major in artificial intelligence this fall. San Diego State started a bachelor's degree last year in artificial intelligence and human responsibility, pairing computer science with courses on ethics and technology and the body.
# Why these programs now
Campuses are balancing two pressures: train students to build technical systems, and teach broader, critical uses of those systems in humanities and social inquiry. Most of the new programs include coursework on ethics and social impacts to address concerns about academic integrity, critical thinking, and the societal effects of these technologies.
# How approaches differ across campuses
Digital humanities degrees remain rare. No Ivy League school and no major public flagships like Michigan or Virginia currently grant a standalone digital humanities degree, although some offer minors or research centers.
# What students can expect in these programs Students in technical majors will learn model-building and applied work aimed at industry roles in medicine, robotics, agriculture and other fields. Digital humanities students will be trained to use computational tools to analyze texts, cultural artifacts, languages and historical records. Across programs, required ethics coursework is common.
# Immediate implications for graduates and employers Universities are positioning graduates to be ready for high-demand tech careers, while also creating pathways for students who want to bring computational tools into humanities and social science research. Programs aim to produce both builders of technical systems and practitioners who can evaluate and apply those systems in domain-specific contexts.
# Bottom line Several prominent California universities have launched undergraduate programs to teach students how to build and use automated systems and computational tools. The new degrees reflect a mix of technical training and humanities-oriented study, with ethics coursework included to address real-world implications and campus concerns about academic integrity.
