Beyond the Obvious: How to Think in the Age of Generative AI

Overview

Generative AI tools are revolutionizing how we access information, make decisions, and form opinions, but they also introduce new risks. In an age where AI can generate confident-sounding claims, charts, and arguments at scale, critical thinking is more essential than ever. In this course, you’ll use Generative AI as a thinking partner to spot false patterns, challenge biased evidence, break apart misleading averages, and uncover logical flaws in headlines, dashboards, and data-driven claims. Along the way, you'll learn to recognize classic reasoning traps, from Simpson’s Paradox to base rate neglect, survivorship bias, and more. By the end of the course, you'll be able to evaluate arguments using logic and evidence, not emotion or popularity; detect hidden assumptions, flawed comparisons, and biased sampling; and use AI tools to test claims, simulate opposing views, and sharpen your reasoning. Whether you're a student, decision-maker, or lifelong learner, this course will help you use AI not just to think faster, but to think better.

Syllabus

Patterns That Fool Us

In this module, students will explore why not all patterns in data are meaningful. They’ll learn how randomness creates illusions that our minds instinctively misinterpret, how correlation can be confused with causation, and why spurious patterns often emerge when data is selected, framed, or misunderstood.

Bad Samples, Bad Stories

Even perfect-looking data can mislead if it’s built on biased foundations. In this module, students will explore how flawed sampling, missing or invisible data, and selective reporting distort what we think we know, and how to critically examine not just the source of the data, but the way it’s framed, filtered, and used.

Misleading Aggregates and Base Rates

Numbers don’t lie, but they can mislead when context is missing. In this module, students will explore how aggregation, base rate neglect, and selective framing distort our understanding of data. They’ll learn to question the comparisons they’re shown and think carefully about the ones they’re not.

Using GenAI to Think More Critically

In the age of GenAI, large language models can become powerful tools to sharpen rather than replace our judgment. This module shows students how to use GenAI tools to test assumptions, simulate disagreement, surface alternative perspectives, and reflect more critically on their own reasoning.