Rice makes major shift towards AI with new degree

By Aisha Khemani     8/26/25 9:50pm

This semester, Rice is embracing artificial intelligence in more ways than one. The Department of Computer Science launched a new bachelor’s degree in AI this semester, and the university has been promoting itself with AI-generated content around campus and on social media.

Rice is also giving students free access to Google Gemini, an AI assistant that can summarize papers, generate responses and support writing, as well as as Google’s NotebookLM, which allows users to use AI work across their own documents and transcripts.

With the launch of the AI major, Rice joins a small group of elite universities — including Carnegie Mellon, the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology  — that offer dedicated AI programs.

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“Artificial intelligence is now a core enabling technology across nearly every discipline,” President Reggie DesRoches wrote in an email to the Thresher. “By launching our Bachelor of Science in Artificial Intelligence in fall 2025, Rice is putting its strategic vision, Momentous, into action.”

John Greiner, an assistant teaching professor of computer science and director of the AI major, said the department began exploring the idea of a major after noting rising student demand for AI. 

“People are realizing AI is not simply a sub-area within computer science anymore,” Greiner said. “It has expanded into a full domain where specialists can focus their entire careers … we  sat back and said, well, we’ve got all of these resources available, does it make sense to actually create a major?”

Vicente Ordóñez-Román, an associate professor of computer science, chaired the committee that designed the program. He compared the launch of Rice’s AI major to the early days of computer science. 

“When computer science first became a discipline, many universities were unsure what to include in the curriculum or even what to call the field,” Ordóñez-Román said. “In creating the major, we looked at the few peer institutions with existing programs. Some were geared toward the extremely technical side, while others leaned more into the social and cognitive psychology aspects.”

Administration and faculty said that the curriculum was built from the ground up, rather than pieced together from existing offerings.  Designed to be well-rounded, two to four of of its 20 courses will be in the social sciences and humanities.

“The courses will equip our students to think critically and strategically about ethical implications and to explore new ways to apply AI,” Provost Amy Dittmar said

Students begin the AI major with a foundation in mathematics and probability before moving into a 12-course AI core. Required classes include Ethics of AI and Intro to Cognitive Psychology. Students also complete three electives from clusters such as Perception and Language; Robotics and Autonomy; Humans and AI; and AI Theory. 

Alex de Sousa, a Brown College sophomore studying computer science, said he is more interested in artificial intelligence — both its development and regulation — than in upper-level computer science courses. 

“The most advanced classes in computer science are going to be related to developing very advanced algorithms and how the computer system works at its core,” de Sousa said. “I feel like that’s separate from the concerns people working in AI have nowadays.”

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