Impact of AI Technologies (2025)

Welcome to Impact of AI Technologies

This course is only for PhD Students enrolled at Aalborg University

Enrolment: https://phd.moodle.aau.dk/course/view.php?id=2504

Description:

Topic, background and motivation for the course:

As artificial intelligence (AI) systems increasingly move from research labs into real-world applications, researchers face growing demands to engage with the broader impact of their work. Although the AI:X research programme is fundamentally oriented toward basic research, future career paths—whether in academia, industry, or policy—will almost inevitably intersect with questions of societal impact. Moreover, the real-world deployment of AI systems often reveals critical mismatches between technical assumptions and practical constraints such as legal, societal, or regulatory frameworks.

This course aims to provide PhD students with foundational insight into the impact ecosystems their research is likely to engage with. By exploring different arenas where impact emerges—legal frameworks, social realities, and policy environments—participants will be better equipped to understand the conditions that shape the successful and responsible implementation of AI systems.

Learning objectives:

To provide a conceptual and practical understanding of research impact and how it is assessed.

To explore the legal, societal, and policy conditions under which AI systems are deployed.

To introduce participants to current trends in impact evaluation, regulation, and public sector implementation.

To prepare participants for future roles in knowledge transfer, policy advice, and cross-sector collaboration.

Teaching methods:

• Lectures
• Group work
• Self-study
• Presentations and discussion
• The course (3 ECTS) corresponds to a total workload of approximately 84 hours.

In preparation, participants are required to write a five-page essay reflecting on the most relevant impact dimensions of their PhD project (≈16 hours), read and comment on peers’ essays in assigned groups (≈8 hours), and study a curated curriculum of central texts on impact across four thematic arenas: General, Policy, Law, and Sociology (≈24 hours).

The course itself spans three full days, each consisting of two hours of lectures, four hours of group work, and two hours of plenary discussion, amounting to 24 contact hours in total.

Following the course, participants will complete a brief synthesis report (basically an update of their original essay — ≈8 hours).

Criteria for assessment:

Active participation and group presentations

Organizer: 

• Rolf Hvidtfeldt

Lecturers:

• Rolf Hvidtfeldt
• David Budtz Pedersen
• + Sociology & Law professors to be defined

ECTS: 3

Time: 8,9,10 December 2025

Place: TBA

City: Aalborg

Number of seats: 26

Deadline: 17 November 2025

Key literature:

Sivertsen, Gunnar, and Ingeborg Meijer. "Normal versus extraordinary societal impact: how to understand, evaluate, and improve research activities in their relations to society?." Research Evaluation 29.1 (2020): 66-70.

Budtz Pedersen, David, and Rolf Hvidtfeldt. "The missing links of research impact." Research Evaluation 33 (2024): rvad011.

Rolf Hvidtfeldt, Mohammad Naser Sabet Jahromi, Àlex Pujol Vidal, Thomas Gammeltoft-Hansen, Thomas Ploug, Jeppe Agger Nielsen, Stine Nørgaard Christensen, Thomas B. Moeslund: "Position: We Fool Ourselves Thinking the ‘X’ in XAI is Useful". NeurIPS (2025)

Pedersen, David Budtz, and Rolf Hvidtfeldt. "The Danish Eco-System of Science for Policy: Discussion Paper." (2021).

As well as texts (to be defined) from law and sociology.

Important information concerning PhD courses: 

There is a no-show fee of DKK 3,000 for each course where the student does not show up. Cancellations are accepted no later than 2 weeks before the start of the course. Registered illness is of course an acceptable reason for not showing up on those days. Furthermore, all courses open for registration approximately four months before start of the course..

For external PhD students: This course is a general course and is prioritised for PhD Students enrolled at Aalborg University. 

To attend courses at the Doctoral School in Medicine, Biomedical Science and Technology you must be enrolled as a PhD student.

We cannot ensure any seats before the deadline for enrolment, all participants will be informed after the deadline, approximately 3 weeks before the start of the course.

For inquiries regarding registration, cancellation or waiting list, please contact the PhD administration at phdcourses@adm.aau.dk  When contacting us please state the course title and course period. Thank you.