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Exploring the ethics of AI: Can we use tools like ChatGPT consciously?

Michael Kwolek — Tue, 24 Feb 2026 16:57:39 +0000

Exploring the ethics of AI: Can we use tools like ChatGPT consciously? Michael Kwolek Tue, 02/24/2026 - 09:57

Michael Kwolek

As adoption of AI tools speeds up on campuses worldwide, students, faculty, and staff may be tempted to simply adopt-and-go. But it pays to consider the ethical implications of how we approach such technologies.

Nikolaus Klassen, business analyst at Google, teaches Applied AI Ethics for undergraduate and graduate students at the ATLAS Institute. With a PhD in classics and work in data processing and reporting, Klassen’s career has zigzagged between the humanities and the tech world.

We discussed the ethical implications of AI tools and how students are thinking about them. This conversation was lightly edited for space and clarity.

If you were to distill the concept of AI ethics to a few major themes in our current moment, what would they be?

I think AI ethics specifically—and tech ethics more generally speaking—is often presented as a trade-off: You can use this tool for free, but we'll invade your privacy. For me that's the core of the problem, because very often it's not easy to break out of this trade-off.

Do you look at utilitarianism, at the consequences, or do you set up unbreakable rules? Again, it’s almost like a trade-off.

So my core approach to AI ethics and tech ethics in general is: How can we ask better questions and find better frameworks that will bring us beyond this simple trade-off between the good and the bad?

Is there a way to offer people better choices and to offer choices in a way that [helps us] make good decisions? Instead of letting our privacy be invaded all the time and giving away our data because the defaults are set up in a certain way, how can we dig deeper and find more root causes of bias in the data?

For me, ethics is more about how can I use these frameworks to expose structural problems and maybe make them better? Alleviate the problems or solve them where possible, rather than just accept that they're part of this bad trade-off.

Key ethics concepts

Utilitarianism - The theory that the most moral action is the one that maximizes good and minimizes suffering for the greatest number of people.
Deontology - The theory that there are absolute moral obligations that must be followed regardless of consequences, exceptions, or potential benefits.
Moral licensing - A phenomenon in which people justify an immoral action after having previously done something good.
Law of the instrument - A cognitive bias toward over-reliance on a familiar tool for solving problems, regardless of suitability.
Choice architecture - A deliberate design of a tool or environment that influences how people make decisions without directly restricting choice.

Why do you think your AI Ethics class is so popular among ATLAS and non-ATLAS students?

I think students are pretty concerned about AI. Is it going to take away all the jobs? It seems to for entry-level jobs, so there is a direct impact. And I see students honestly grapple with how they should use AI in their own studies.

People frame it as: Is AI my crutch or is it a good tool that I'm using?

It's not like this is an abstract academic phenomenon. If you're going through your surroundings with open eyes, you can see bad impacts of unethical AI usage, so I think this is very concrete and applicable for students.

What do you hope students take away from spending a semester considering the ethical implications of AI technology?

For me it's really all about the questions—I want students to have a toolbox of questions they can ask and to teach them when they see a phenomenon not to just take it at face value. Be it a technology, an app, a use case, whatever their friends are using. To say, “Hold on a minute, let me ask some questions here,” and give them good questions to ask. To say, “How can I dive deeper into a problem?” and understand the root cause or the assumptions that are hidden here and sharpen these analytical tools to cut through the noise.

How do you think about AI in general? A tool? A platform? A way of life?

As humans, we experience these gateway transitions where we change something and then open up a new world. Agriculture enabled cities and civilizations and division of labor with all the bad and all the good [associated with that]. We suddenly could finance full-time poets and musicians and spend more resources on meaning making and culture.

Then you have the mechanical engine and the revolution that came with it. We have a lot more mobility today. We don't have to work so hard. Our life expectancy has basically doubled since then. It has enabled all kinds of different ways of living.

I think AI is probably going to be the same. The amount of information that we have in the world today is far beyond what humans can process. Because there's so much information around, it's hard to cut through it. For better or worse, we need technology to help us process it. We cannot do so on our own anymore. I think this will be the next gateway.

Most likely we will go through a valley like we did after the agricultural revolution and the mechanical revolution with unemployment rising or people being more and more hooked on digital technology. I feel like this is happening whether we want that or not.

The speed of change feels unprecedented. How does ethics apply to a phenomenon that is evolving so quickly?

I don't think it's ever going to be too late to make AI more ethical. If you think about the industrial revolution, the life of workers got so much worse when they started to work in the factories than it was when they were working in the fields. It took 50 or 100 years or so to rectify that. And within that comparatively short time span, the life of workers was better than the life of farmers. And we probably have stronger social ethics today than we had in the 18th century, so I don't think it's impossible for AI to do that. I would expect it to happen.

As tech advancements speed up, consider how best to incorporate AI tools at school and work.

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Inaugural Sustainability Research Initiative Research Fellows unveiled

Michael Kwolek — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 20:20:47 +0000

Inaugural Sustainability Research Initiative Research Fellows unveiled Michael Kwolek Mon, 02/23/2026 - 13:20

Assistant professor Mirela Alistar is a member of the first cohort of SRI Research Fellows selected by �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder's Research & Innovation Office.

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Inside Sh!tty Hacks: An Anti-Hackathon at �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder

Michael Kwolek — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 19:54:22 +0000

Inside Sh!tty Hacks: An Anti-Hackathon at �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder Michael Kwolek Thu, 02/05/2026 - 12:54

Sometimes the process of making and creating loses its “fun” streak, so why not put on a 24-hour hackathon that awarded the weird, wild, and possibly destructive nature of making and engineering?

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2026 RIO Faculty Fellows cohort spans departments and disciplines across campus

Michael Kwolek — Mon, 08 Dec 2025 22:57:57 +0000

2026 RIO Faculty Fellows cohort spans departments and disciplines across campus Michael Kwolek Mon, 12/08/2025 - 15:57

Assistant professor Michael Rivera is one of 18 joining the 2026 RIO Faculty Fellow cohort.

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Balfour’s Memory Care patients treated to soothing Longmont Symphony experience

Michael Kwolek — Fri, 05 Dec 2025 18:54:54 +0000

Balfour’s Memory Care patients treated to soothing Longmont Symphony experience Michael Kwolek Fri, 12/05/2025 - 11:54

Grace Leslie noted that "for people living with Alzheimer’s or dementia, both anecdotal and experimental evidence point to the durability of music in the brain."

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Coding with creativity: How ATLAS students think beyond algorithms

Michael Kwolek — Mon, 01 Dec 2025 18:07:35 +0000

Coding with creativity: How ATLAS students think beyond algorithms Michael Kwolek Mon, 12/01/2025 - 11:07

Caitlin Rockett

With his computer plugged into a projector at the front of the room, Hudson Blankner, a freshman in Gabe Johnson’s Computational Foundations 1 class, displayed his final project: a trio of classic games—rock, paper, scissors; tic tac toe; and table tennis.

The assignment required students to build an interactive game using the programming skills they’d learned over the semester, and to experiment with different problem-solving strategies—including, if they wanted, “vibe” coding, the practice of prompting artificial intelligence models to generate code.

Blankner did try using AI, and he wasn’t subtle about his feelings.

“I coded this all in one prompt, but I really hate vibe coding,” Blankner told the class. “AI is like a Division I gaslighter. It took 15 prompts to make the game look like this.”

Johnson expects students to explore AI tools, as he sees more and more companies requiring software engineers to use AI to some extent to program more, and faster. But Johnson also expects students—like professional software engineers—to understand the logic behind their programs and learn to write their own code, that way they know what AI gets right, wrong, good, bad or mediocre.

“These students, for the most part, have not programmed before—they’re coming into this class fresh,” said Johnson, who teaches introductory computer programming courses for the Creative Technology and Design (CTD) curriculum at the ATLAS Institute. “Maybe some of them had taken ‘computer science classes’ in high school, but that’s often just building a web page.”

Engineering meets design

CTD degrees are granted through the College of Engineering, where coding and computational thinking are essential skills across disciplines. At ATLAS, CTD majors build that engineering foundation alongside deep design practice, giving them a holistic and strategic approach to problem solving. Rather than following trends or treating design as aesthetics alone, CTD students learn to analyze human needs and create solutions that are usable, meaningful and durable. That means students not only learn to code, they also build skills in web development, interaction design, physical prototyping, audio and video production, digital media, theory and project management.

“I think CTD students can better explain their programming work,” Johnson said. “Yes, they have the technical knowledge, but they fit that knowledge into the broader context of society, of designing for humans. Communicating what you are doing is almost more important than the thing you are doing. CTD students are able to explain not just what they did, but why and how and what else they considered. Telling a story is much richer—much more human.”

Creative logic in action

When presenting midterm projects, Johnson found first-time programmers in his Computational Foundations I class thinking outside the engineering box to solve problems. Laura Baker, a sophomore, wrestled with how to determine when a player-controlled bee had reached a flower at the center of a maze.

“This was an annoyingly difficult problem that seemed so simple,” Baker said. “I took an artist's approach using a simple Boolean statement and an array of RGB color codes: If the bee was touching the appropriate color, then it stopped moving. I was very proud because I didn’t use AI to help me. I tend to lean toward artsy solutions in all of my projects. The only setback with the solution I used for the bee in the maze is that you cannot change the color of the walls of the maze because then the RGB code will not link back up to the if statement correctly. It worked for my presentation, though.”

While Baker could have created a traditional hitbox math test to determine where rectangles intersect, Johnson was impressed with her solution: “She needed to figure it out, and she had a creative solution rather than the ‘right’ solution.”

Of course, Johnson teaches Computational Foundations students the “right” solutions as well, but he fosters unconventional thinking because it can lead to innovation—more necessary than ever in a world driven by generative artificial intelligence.

“Programming is in upheaval right now because of AI,” Johnson said. “Future programmers are going into a world where large language models and AI chatbots can do all sorts of creative-approximate stuff. Programmers need skills that AI can’t approximate. One of the main functions of a university is to teach people to think critically, because now we have machines that can do thinking-like things. So future programmers can either evaluate the machines and push back against them, or just roll over and let the machines win.”

A ‘joyful experience’

Johnson, who also teaches introductory programming classes for computer science majors, believes creativity is necessary for coding. Far too many people, he said, see programming as “an arcane mathematical thing.”

Creative Technology & Design

Learn more about the ATLAS Institute and CTD programs including undergraduate major, minor and certificate; professional master’s; and PhD.

Online info sessions about all CTD programs are held regularly throughout the year.

Prospective students can email atlascommunications@colorado.edu to schedule a student-led tour.

That creative mindset shows up in his students’ work. Computational Foundations I students blended math and design in midterm projects, with one student creating billowing clouds moving across the sky, and another coding a Price Is Right-style Plinko game simulator—both of which present a visualization of a Gaussian distribution.

“I teach Computational Foundations I basically in the same way I teach Computer Science 1300, except in Computational Foundations I, I have much more leeway in making it fun and design-oriented,” Johnson said. “I provide the most creative and joyful experience that you can have when learning to code, and let students figure out for themselves whether they want to learn more. And because it's so fun, many of them are enthusiastic about doing it.”

Baker—who had “very minimal coding experience before starting Computational Foundations”—said her view of coding has changed dramatically since taking the class.

“This class has shown me how creative coding is, that you can design with code and get an awesome, artistic output,” Baker said. “Coding has given me a new medium to make art with, and I’m very excited about that.”

Computational Foundations I teaches code as a technical and expressive skill.

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DNA origami: unfolding genetic breakthroughs

Michael Kwolek — Tue, 18 Nov 2025 17:39:32 +0000

DNA origami: unfolding genetic breakthroughs Michael Kwolek Tue, 11/18/2025 - 10:39

Michael Kwolek

Lab Venture Challenge

Johnson and Alistar competed as finalists in �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder’s 2025 Lab Venture Challenge where their technology generated much interest from industry leaders.

Access to DNA is crucial in many branches of biomedical research. But making long strands of DNA is time consuming, error-prone and expensive.

Over the years, researchers have worked to make DNA synthesis more efficient, with important contributions made by Marvin Caruthers, distinguished professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the �鶹��Ѱ��. This research has advanced a range of biomedical fields including drug and vaccine development, pathogen tests, and cancer diagnostics.

Making DNA involves complex biochemical and mechanical processes to assemble a strand base by base. At each stage, there is a small chance of failure, but in doing this process over and over for more bases, that chance increases.

The process of creating a DNA strand longer than 1,000 bases often takes several weeks, which can hinder research cycles. To solve this, biotech companies have pursued incremental efficiency gains in strand construction.

Now researchers in the ATLAS Institute’s Living Matter Lab aim to rethink DNA synthesis altogether.

A new way to build DNA

Lab director and assistant professor Mirela Alistar and post-doctoral researcher Joshua Johnson are working to develop nanorobots that will more quickly and accurately build DNA to meet researchers’ specifications in a matter of days instead of weeks.

They are employing DNA origami—a creative technique for shaping these building blocks of life—to create a nanorobot to speed the process of making new DNA strands. “It folds much like paper origami, but it is made of DNA,” Johnson noted. “Our particular nanorobot is rectangular with a rotating arm element. It is about 2,000 times smaller than the width of human hair.”

DNA origami research dates back to 2006, with scientists making simple but precise nanoscale shapes and patterns. Alistar and Johnson aim to apply this technique to the mechanical arrangement of molecules. “We are taking existing scientific concepts and combining them in new ways—much like engineering a normal sized robot but at the molecular scale," Johnson elaborated.

Alistar explained the team’s contribution to DNA origami research as “designing the DNA structure that becomes a robot such that it is more stable, translating the fabrication process from extremely highly advanced labs to a little bit of a lower-key lab in computer science, which means we have to be inventive with a lot of the processes.”

The right place for the research

The ATLAS Institute’s relationships with the College of Engineering and Applied Science create space for such breakthrough research. “We are interdisciplinary—I'm confident saying that,” Alistar said. “We do work with DNA for bacteriophages. We also work with microfluidics, which is also needed for the DNA nanorobot. So there are a lot of intersections in which we saw the potential for developing a DNA origami-based project in the lab.”

Sensing great promise in their research, the team is seeking a commercialization path to reach the real-world. “This nanomachine process that we developed could be substantially faster than anything else in the industry,” Johnson noted. “There is a clear market need: biotech and pharmaceutical companies wait weeks for their large DNA strands, and that slows down research.”

According to early market analysis, these companies would be willing to pay more to get their DNA faster. “We've identified that the gene synthesis market would benefit most because they need the longest DNA, they need it the fastest and they're willing to pay the most for it,” Johnson said.

Alistar also noted potential in cell-free research. “A lot of development in biology goes toward using merely DNA, not living cells. Applications are mostly in vaccines.” If, for example, you could more quickly make a vaccine even in remote places, that could have major implications for global health.

To commercialize this research, Alistar and Johnson are pursuing “a lot of support from �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder and the state of Colorado in getting to an actual product,” Alistar explained. “If everything goes right, we're gonna be enrolled in a national-level program for two months of customer discovery research.”

The team hopes to demonstrate market feasibility of their new synthesis method within three years to improve one of the main bottlenecks in biotech research and help smooth the way toward improved vaccines, gene therapy and more personalized medicine.

Living Matter Lab designs nanorobots for DNA production to speed biomedical research.

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Minds in rhythm

Michael Kwolek — Tue, 11 Nov 2025 16:33:16 +0000

Minds in rhythm Michael Kwolek Tue, 11/11/2025 - 09:33

Michael Kwolek

Imagine the cacophony of a conversation in which everyone talks, listens and responds at the same time.

Trained musicians performing together can make a similar set of sensory inputs and brain activity truly resonate. Though a feature of the human experience for thousands of years, interbrain synchronization when playing music is not well understood.

As a member of the Brain Music Lab, ATLAS PhD student Thiago Roque has developed novel techniques for studying these nuanced dynamics with the aim to expand our understanding not only of musical performance, but also of human-to-human collaboration and connection more broadly.

In his teens, Roque fell in love with music while beginning to develop his engineering skills. “I always wanted to be an engineer because I wanted to understand how things work, mostly toys and mechanics, electrical stuff,” he said, “but at that point, I also wanted to understand music.”

When he got his first electronic keyboard, he realized, “An electrical engineer designed this to make music, so I realized that I could connect both things.”

After earning BS and MS degrees in electrical engineering at University of Campinas in Brazil, Roque came to study with Grace Leslie at Georgia Tech, then transferred to �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder when Leslie opened her Brain Music Lab in the ATLAS Institute.

“Thiago has been a really integral part of the Brain Music Lab,” Leslie noted. “A lot of that has to do with his engineering background—it's rare to find graduate students who have the musical sophistication to be working on these projects and can rise to the occasion when it comes to developing custom technology for the research questions that we have.”

Studying brains in motion

Analyzing brain activity in moving bodies is surprisingly challenging—standard EEG data is captured in subjects who remain still.

Roque has studied how dancers’ brains sync when they perform together, using his electrical engineering background to develop ways to improve the quality of EEG data in moving subjects.

To compensate for all the action involved, he sewed motion sensors into the EEG caps and modified hardware to read neck and eye movement to improve data quality. This led to more ambitious plans with an even higher degree of difficulty.

The string ensemble experiment

Having dreamed for years of being able to analyze a string quartet performing a piece of music, Roque explained, “we needed all the equipment to be precisely synchronized, so we had to design this hardware that sends triggers and synchronizes everything. I designed and assembled the printed circuit boards myself.”

He spent months incorporating off-the-shelf EEG equipment, accelerometers and other sensors with custom-designed components to normalize the data and sync it between all the musicians.

The next step was finding a quartet willing to participate in the experiment. Luckily, �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder’s College of Music—across the street from the ATLAS Institute—is home to several student quartets, including the ensemble that ultimately agreed to participate.

Roque said, “We wanted to work with students here because we know they will have regular rehearsals. They will have just met each other at the beginning of the semester, so they are new to it. We are planning to measure them at the end of the semester so we can see the progress, how they develop.”

The research team

This project has not been a solo gig. Daniel Ethridge, Daniel Llamas Maldonado and Sophia Mehdizadeh from the Brain Music Lab—as well as several master’s and undergraduate students—have been instrumental in executing the string quartet research.

An interdisciplinary performance

For Roque, the ATLAS Institute offers several unique elements that make this type of research possible. “It's an interdisciplinary environment that fosters challenging research with high risks but potentially high payouts, and it's a very creative place,” he noted.

“Thinking about the University of Colorado, I had this opportunity to enroll in this triple PhD program. I'm getting a PhD in creative technology and design, neuroscience and cognitive science.”

Leslie explained how this research fits into the Brain Music Lab’s larger mission: “While we are focusing on technology and developing new technology and studying how humans interface with it, what sets us apart is our focus on the really human element to it.”

The next movement

Roque aims to continue studying this young quartet to determine if their brain activity syncs more thoroughly as they continue to perform together. He would also like to study graduate musicians and seasoned professionals to learn how interbrain coupling may change based on the experience level of the musicians.

Expanding the scope

Brain Music Lab director, Grace Leslie, recently performed a solo improvisational piece, Inside the Tank, in the B2 Black Box Theater, integrating EEG headset and body sensors.

The lab team also outfitted several audience members with EEG monitors, giving Roque additional data to study the physiological responses of those experiencing live music.

Roque also looks forward to bringing this technology to the stage. Plans are in the works for a string quartet performance in the spring semester with a huge visualization of live physiological data to give the audience a sense of the musicians’ synchronization.

“A lot of it is developing this technology that we hopefully can use in the future to continue to study musical group dynamics,” Leslie said, “but there's also this human-computer interaction application where he's done some of the foundational research to show that we can develop brain-computer interfaces that can be social.”

This research may reveal insights as to how human connection and collaboration work. Over time, it could lead to tools and techniques to improve our ability to sync with each other when working on complex tasks—whether that means performing in a string quartet, playing a team sport or simply holding a nuanced conversation.

ATLAS PhD student studies how brain activity syncs when musicians perform together.

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�鶹��Ѱ��Boulder graduate student named a Google PhD fellow

Michael Kwolek — Mon, 27 Oct 2025 16:02:04 +0000

�鶹��Ѱ��Boulder graduate student named a Google PhD fellow Michael Kwolek Mon, 10/27/2025 - 10:02

Hye-Young Jo of computer science and the ATLAS Institute will be using the funding to research human-computer interactions.

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Building robots, building connections

Michael Kwolek — Thu, 23 Oct 2025 21:41:53 +0000

Building robots, building connections Michael Kwolek Thu, 10/23/2025 - 15:41

On a Tuesday afternoon at a Denver public school, a group of elementary students gather around tables piled with Lego bricks, laughing and chatting as they carefully follow instructions to assemble their creations. A few minutes later, they’re chasing a small robot car around the classroom, laughing as it bumps along the floor.

Scenes like this are familiar to Casey Hunt, a PhD candidate at the ATLAS Institute. Each week, Hunt visits four Denver public schools as part of a collaboration with Inspire to Learn and Imagine, helping K–5 students explore engineering and coding through Lego robotics.

The after-school program uses the Lego WeDo 2.0 ecosystem—a kid-friendly robotics kit that empowers young learners to build moving creations and program them with simple code. “The goal isn’t just to teach them mechanics or coding, it’s to give them space to build, test and problem-solve together,” Hunt explained. “They take a lot of ownership over their creations, and that’s really fun to watch.”

Hunt facilitates each club session, helping students work through the weekly project, teaching basic engineering concepts and encouraging teamwork. All four schools tackle the same project each week, but students always find ways to make it their own—like the pair who built a sidecar for their minifigure passengers, then raced it gleefully across the library.

“It’s so fun to see them take pride in their creations,” Hunt said. “They find ways to make each build reflect their personalities or friendships, and I love watching them put their own spin on the designs.”

Beyond the joy of seeing students bring their ideas to life, the program aligns closely with Hunt’s academic pursuit. Her research focuses on how materials can teach people through making, drawing on constructionist learning theories. “I’m interested in how these ideas from education can be adapted to participatory design, building with communities,” Hunt said. “In Lego club, I get to watch how kids naturally negotiate, share ideas and make design decisions together—it’s a different context, but very similar to the collaboration I study.”

Hunt reflects on how these young learners engage with core STEM skills: reading and following design instructions, iterating when things don’t work and collaborating with peers to solve problems. “Their approach is actually a lot like my undergraduate students, just at an age-appropriate level,” she noted.

For ATLAS, programs like this reflect a broader commitment to community engagement and inclusive STEM education. The institute’s partnership with Inspire to Learn and Imagine extends its impact beyond the university—fostering creativity, curiosity and confidence in the next generation of makers.

By connecting university researchers with local classrooms, outreach efforts like the Lego club not only support young learners but also give graduate students meaningful teaching and mentorship experiences outside the lab.

“This kind of work shows how our research and expertise can ripple outward,” Hunt said. “It’s a reminder that what we study in the lab connects to real people—and real joy—in the community.”

ATLAS PhD candidate Casey Hunt brings STEM learning to local classrooms with Lego robotics.

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News

Exploring the ethics of AI: Can we use tools like ChatGPT consciously?

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Inaugural Sustainability Research Initiative Research Fellows unveiled

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Inside Sh!tty Hacks: An Anti-Hackathon at �鶹��Ѱ�����Boulder

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Balfour’s Memory Care patients treated to soothing Longmont Symphony experience

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Coding with creativity: How ATLAS students think beyond algorithms

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DNA origami: unfolding genetic breakthroughs

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Minds in rhythm

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�鶹��Ѱ�����Boulder graduate student named a Google PhD fellow

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Building robots, building connections

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Inside Sh!tty Hacks: An Anti-Hackathon at �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder

�鶹��Ѱ��Boulder graduate student named a Google PhD fellow