More reasons to enroll early: Save $250 on tuition + 50% off your deposit. Enroll by Oct 31. Fully refundable.
Test AI tools and pitch a responsible concept in this 2-week AI program for high school students on UCLA’s campus.
Rated 4.2 out of 5 for the instructor by students who took this course in 2026.
Course Description
An AI system can produce an impressive result and still need a closer look. Test what it gets right, where it fails, and when a person needs to step in.
In this course you will explore machine learning, computer vision, generative AI, prompt design, and media verification. A human-versus-machine pattern simulation and an image model built without coding in Teachable Machine put the ideas into practice. Compare prompts and build a checklist for spotting AI-generated media. Case debates and a bias audit raise questions about fairness, privacy, transparency, accessibility, and misuse.
For an original AI for Good concept, choose a real problem and define who the system would serve. Explain how it would work, identify the data it needs, and create a visual prototype or storyboard. An ethics review challenges the design to uncover failures and strengthen safeguards. You’ll pitch the concept and its limitations to a nontechnical audience, making the case for its usefulness without overstating what it can do.
This two-week course for high school students takes place at UCLA in Los Angeles, California. The course is available to residential and commuter students. The program is developed by UCLA and offered in partnership with Summer Discovery.
What You Will Do
• Map everyday AI systems and the roles they play
• Try a human-versus-machine pattern-recognition simulation
• Test an image model without writing code
• Compare prompts and check claims in generated output
• Audit an AI case for bias, privacy, and transparency
• Prototype and pitch an AI for Good concept
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course, students will be able to:
• Explain core ideas behind machine learning, computer vision, and generative AI
• Evaluate AI output and design for evidence, bias, privacy, and human oversight
• Explain how an AI concept serves users while addressing risks and limits
You’ll leave with your AI for Good concept, presentation and a certificate of completion.
Why Responsible AI Skills Matter
Responsible AI work requires both technical curiosity and disciplined judgment. Students practice separating a confident output from a verified claim, testing how a model behaves, and asking who could be helped, harmed, excluded, or misrepresented by a design.
Those activities strengthen evidence evaluation, problem framing, and communication. A prototype must make the user and purpose clear. A bias audit requires criteria rather than vague concern. A red-team review asks students to look for failure before presenting a solution. These habits matter in computer science and data work, and they are equally useful in media, healthcare, education, design, business, and public policy.
Who Should Attend?
For students who have completed 9th, 10th, 11th, or 12th grade.
If you want to understand AI beyond a confident answer or a dramatic headline, this course gives you tools to investigate. Interests in technology, design, media, healthcare, business, or policy all offer useful questions to bring. You’ll test tools, exchange critiques, and explain a concept to a nontechnical audience while considering both its possibilities and its human consequences.
Recommended by More Than 4 out of 5 Students
Based on students surveyed in Summer Discovery’s 2026 UCLA high school program.
Your Summer at UCLA
UCLA gives high-school students the opportunity to explore an academic interest while experiencing university life in Los Angeles, a city where entertainment, technology, business, science, and culture constantly intersect. The campus has its own community and rhythm while connecting students to a wider environment built around creativity and new ideas.
Students learn alongside peers, navigate a large campus, and gain independence through everyday choices and responsibilities. Time outside class expands the experience through friendships, campus life, and opportunities to notice which subjects and settings hold their attention. For families, UCLA offers a valuable combination of substantive academics, personal growth, and clearer direction about what a student may want to study, experience more deeply, or pursue next.
Summer Discovery Certificate of Completion
After successfully finishing this course, you will be awarded a certification completion for your accomplishment.
*This is a preview, not what you will receive