MSt in AI Ethics and Society

Virtual Open Events.

To watch the recording of the MSt AI Ethics and Society Information Session recording from our Master's Open Week 2024, click here.

Student Stories

Read about the experiences of one of our past students Student Stories

Education Aims

The programme aims to equip students with the skills and knowledge necessary to address the ethical and societal challenges arising from the use of Artificial Intelligence. It provides a professionally relevant teaching and learning environment informed by the forefront of academic research on AI and its ethical and societal impacts.

The programme will:

● Ensure that engagement with the ethical and societal challenges of AI is thoroughly informed by the knowledge, theories and methods of relevant established academic disciplines

● Provide a critical overview of the state of current interdisciplinary research on the challenges of AI

● Develop the critical research skills and analytical abilities needed to identify and address ethical challenges as they arise in practice from applications of AI

● Instil thorough knowledge of the role that different governance approaches can play in navigating the challenges of AI, and the ability to critically analyse those approaches

● Develop experts in the ethical and societal implications of AI with the ability and initiative to identify and address the challenges of AI across sectors and society

● Create a network for such experts to collaborate and continue learning as leaders in the field of AI ethics and governance

Learning outcomes

Knowledge and Understanding

By the end of this programme, students will be able to:

● Discuss the ethical and societal challenges of AI with a full understanding of its history and its relationship to other disciplines and technologies

● Identify the capabilities of current AI systems, their key applications and the potential ethical and societal challenges of those applications

● Evaluate key ethical and societal challenges arising from the use of AI and the existing critical literature

● Apply theories and methodologies from a range of established disciplines and demonstrate their use in addressing ethical and societal challenges raised by AI

● Analyse the strengths and weaknesses of current governance approaches for addressing the challenges posed by AI

● Apply the systematic understanding of AI ethics and governance to develop new insights

Skills and other attributes

By the end of this programme, students will be able to:

● Synthesise and analyse research and advanced scholarship across disciplines

● Put theoretical and academic knowledge into practice

● Structure extended pieces of written work and present arguments clearly and effectively

● Plan and implement an independent research project

● Deal with complex issues both systematically and creatively, and show originality in tackling and solving problems

Residentials in Cambridge

You are expected to attend all of the four week-long residentials in Cambridge, as follows.

• 22 - 26 September 2025
• 05 - 09 January 2026
• 27 April – 1 May 2026
• 07 - 11 September 2026

In addition to the in person, taught residentials, there will be a number of pre-recorded lectures from a range of guest speakers, as well as live discussion sessions. The live sessions will typically take place weekly or fortnightly on Fridays, in term-time only. 

There will also be some online dissertation workshops in Year 2, to help with planning and share ideas with fellow students. These are planned for 22 January 2027 and 23 April 2027 (dates tbc).

Year 1

Module 1: The Nature and History of AI

Aims: To provide students with theoretical, academic and practical understanding of how artificial intelligence has been developed, used and understood historically across different traditions, and how it is being applied in society today.

Key areas:

● The technical foundations of AI and the current capabilities and status of the technology

● Current applications of AI across a range of domains and sectors

● The history of AI and its relationship to other disciplines and technologies, including the history of computing and administration

● The nature and measurement of intelligence, and comparisons between human, animal and artificial intelligence

Module 2: Ethical and Societal Challenges

Aims: To provide students with a comprehensive understanding of key ethical and societal challenges raised by AI, through engagement with the contemporary critical literature and case studies.

Key areas:

● Critical discussion of the following themes:

- Privacy

- Fairness and equality

- Safety

- Accountability

- Human dignity and autonomy

● The relationship between the near- and long-term challenges of AI

● Comparison of different global perspectives

Module 3: Governing AI

Aims: To critically engage with a range of practical approaches to navigating the ethical and societal challenges of AI, including those found in policy, regulation, law, ethics principles, and social action.

Key areas:

● Comparison and critical analysis of current AI policy initiatives worldwide

● Overview and critical discussion of different codes of practice and principles for AI ethics, and their implementation

● Critical discussion of methods for ethical impact assessment

● Critical discussion of methods for ethical design

● The role of activism and civil society

Year 2

Module 4: Theories and Methods

Aims: To increase rigor and depth in understanding and analysing the ethical and societal challenges of AI by introducing students to foundational knowledge, theories and methods in established academic disciplines.

Key areas:

● Theories and methods from the following disciplines:

- Philosophical ethics

- The history and philosophy of science

- Literary and cultural studies

- Social and behavioural sciences

- Futures studies and foresight methods

- Critical design studies

Module 5: Dissertation

Aims: To enable students to apply and develop their learning from Modules 1-4 through an innovative, independent research project in an area relevant to the course, topic and scope to be agreed with the supervisor.

Assessment

Assignments on the MSt are divided into two components: 

Component 1: Modules 1-4 (50%)

Component 2: Dissertation (50%)

Students are expected to submit academically rigorous, properly referenced assignments.  Guidance on academic writing is offered through the Course Guide and VLE, wider University resources - including within Colleges - and within the first module.

As students enter the MSt with differing levels of experience of academic writing, it is expected that students will seek to develop these skills independently as needed, thereafter throughout the programme.

The modules are assessed as follows:

● Module 1: 2,000 word essay (8% of final grade)

● Modules 2, 3 and 4: 4,500 word essay each (14% each of final grade)

All summative assessment is compulsory. Students will receive continual formative feedback throughout the course using a variety of strategies and techniques, including evidence of regular reflection.

In the second year (module 5), students will write a 15,000 word dissertation which accounts for 50% of the final grade.

Course Team

Dr Henry Shevlin (PhD, CUNY Graduate Center, 2016; BPhil, Oxford, 2009) is a Education Director at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence. His work focuses on issues at the intersection of philosophy of mind, cognitive science, and animal cognition, with a particular emphasis on perception, memory, and desire. Since 2015, he has been serving as a student committee member of the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness.

Dr Garfield Benjamin is an Assistant Teaching Professor at ICE. Garfield is a Science and Technology Studies scholar focused on the social inequalities surrounding AI and related technologies. Their research and teaching is concerned with issues of power, identity, trust, discrimination, privacy, injustice and marginalisation. Garfield's current work builds on queer performativity to unpick the roles and norms embedded within technology discourses. Garfield was previously a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Solent University, and Research Officer at the Birmingham Centre for Cyber Security and Privacy. They are committed to high quality, socially-engaged academic activity and creating opportunities to model the aims of tackling social inequalities through their own research, teaching and engagement with wider communities.

Dr Jonnie Penn, FRSA, is a historian of information technology, broadcaster, and public speaker. He is an Affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center at Harvard Law School, a Research Fellow at St. Edmunds College at the University of Cambridge, a New York Times bestselling author, and a fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts. He has held prior fellowships at the MIT Media Lab, Google, and the British National Academy of Writing. He writes and speaks widely about the future of work, data governance, youth and worker empowerment, and sustainable digital technologies.

Dr William Chan is a Teaching Fellow of the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, where he contributes to the MSt in AI Ethics and Society and MPhil in Ethics of AI, Data and Algorithms. Alongside his teaching work, he is a Data Ethics Consultant at Information Governance Services, working with legal professionals to produce industry-facing AI/data ethics education, events, opinions and training materials.

Dr Milena Ivanova is a philosopher of science interested in the relationship between science and art, the role of aesthetic values and creativity in scientific pursuits, and whether automated scientific discoveries can be valued aesthetically. Dr Ivanova studied History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Athens and completed her PhD at the University of Bristol supported by the British Society for Philosophy of Science and the Royal Institute for Philosophy. Dr Ivanova is a Bye-Fellow, Director of Studies and Graduate Tutor at Fitzwilliam College at the University of Cambridge. 

Dr Jedrzej (Jedrek) Niklas is a Senior Teaching Associate at ICE. He leads Module 3 on AI Governance, exploring the regulatory, ethical, and societal challenges of AI in public institutions. A socio-legal scholar, his research examines the governance of AI and the role of technology in the public sector, with a particular focus on digital rights, algorithmic regulation, and data-driven decision-making.

Dr Achim Roseman teaches on the MSt in AI Ethics and Society and the MPhil in Ethics, Data and Algorithms. He has an interdisciplinary background in anthropology, science and technology studies (STS) and the ethics and governance of AI and emerging technologies more widely. In collaboration with UNESCO’s Bioethics and Ethics of Science and Technology Section, Achim is leading the UKRI-funded pilot project “Strengthening the Role of Civil Society in the Global Governance of AI”. 

Dr Inga Ulnicane is an Assistant Professor at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, University of Cambridge. She has more than 20 years of international experience in research, teaching and leadership. She has published extensively on topics such as politics and policy of Artificial Intelligence, governance of emerging technologies, and Grand societal challenges. In addition to academic research, she has prepared commissioned reports for the European Parliament and European Commission. Dr. Ulnicane has wide-ranging teaching experience of preparing courses on topics such as public policy, governance of science and technology, and knowledge-based society as well as providing training on Responsible Innovation and ethics. Her background is in political science, policy analysis, and science and technology studies. 

Fees

The fees for 2025-27, which include College membership, are:

• £12,447 per annum for Home students (total £24,894)
• £18,666 per annum for Overseas students (total £37,332)

This is payable in instalments over the two academic years. Note that all fees for Year 1 must be paid in full in order to progress to Year 2. Please contact our Admissions team if you would like guidance or are unsure of whether you qualify for Home or Overseas fee status.

College membership

When you apply, you can specify a first and second choice from any of the following partner Colleges, or select ‘No Preference’: 

• Homerton
• Hughes Hall
• Lucy Cavendish 
• St Edmund's

We will do our best to allocate students to their preferred College(s), but this is dependent on capacity and ensuring an equal balance between all partner Colleges. To find out more about College membership, see the most recent ‘Meet the Colleges’ recording.

If you have a pre-existing membership at a Cambridge College which is not listed above, you can approach them to ask if they would consider you as a member for this course. However, we are unable to arrange this for you. It is only possible to select membership of one of the above partner Colleges if this is not your case. 

Some Colleges might be able to offer accommodation for a fee during residentials (subject to availability), but this is not guaranteed. You are also free to make your own accommodation arrangements. We will provide confirmed students with suggestions for possible accommodation options in advance of the residentials.

Funding

We do not currently have any scholarships or bursaries for this course. We strongly recommend that you explore any potential funding well in advance of the application deadline. 

Sources of government funding and financial support - including Professional and Career Development Loans

For information on a loan from Student Finance England for course fees and a contribution towards living costs, please see　https://www.ice.cam.ac.uk/info/student-loans

You will be expected to cover the application fee (£50 online) and any costs of travel, accommodation and subsistence during residential sessions in Cambridge.

All applications are reviewed on a gathered field basis after the deadline. It is not possible to provide an early indication of application outcomes before the application deadline.

You must submit the following documents with your application:

• Official undergraduate degree transcripts
• Undergraduate degree Certificate
• Other professional or academic qualifications
• Language certificate (where required)
• Personal Statement* (motivation for applying for the course and a summary of most relevant experience or interest in relation to AI Ethics & Society)
• Recent Curriculum Vitae (CV)
• 2 References (preferably academic references, but employer references can also be accepted if your last engagement with academic study was a long time ago)
• Sample of work **
• Dissertation (research) proposal ***

* The Personal Statement should be approximately 500-600 words. 

** You should provide a writing sample in English of no more than 5,000 words to demonstrate your ability to write for a professional, academic or public audience on any topic (topics related to AI and/or ethics are especially encouraged). This might be a news article, professional report, academic paper, internal report, blog post or other form of published or unpublished written communication.

*** Your research proposal (up to 500 words maximum) should outline one potential topic you would hope to undertake for your dissertation in the second year of the course. We encourage you to include: (a) a central research question or title (b) a brief summary of the historiography and current state of knowledge in that area (c) gaps in knowledge or problems you hope to engage with, and an indication of where your research may advance our understanding (d) references to the relevant literature of which you are already aware, or which you expect to be able to consult. Whilst this proposal is non-binding, note that it will be one of the considerations when shortlisting applicants, and will form part of the interview process.

Using AI in your application

When completing an application, you should note the following restrictions and risks of using AI tools: https://www.postgraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/apply/how/ai-postgraduate-applications

Important Dates

● September 2024: Open for applications

● 28 February 2025: Deadline to apply.

● Late March / early April 2025: Online admission interviews (exact dates tbc)

The interview is an opportunity for us to discuss your application, career goals and your academic and professional experience and skills in detail, as well as your dissertation proposal. It is also an opportunity for you to ask the panel any questions. The panel will consist of two representatives from the academic team.

● June / July 2024: Final decisions and conditional offers, online Offer Holder Event

● w/c 22 September 2025: course commences, first in person residential in Cambridge.

The MSt Admissions Guide is available here

If you have any questions about the application process, contact our Admissions team: mst.admissions@ice.cam.ac.uk