Framing Discussions of AI Policy Implications in Computing Courses

The growth and permeation of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies across society has drawn focus to the ways in which the responsible use of these technologies can be facilitated through AI governance. Increasingly, large companies and governments alike have begun to articulate and, in some cases, enforce governance preferences through AI policy. In this context, overlapping jurisdictions and even contradictory policy preferences across private companies, local, national, and multinational governments create a complex landscape for AI policy which, we argue, will require AI developers able adapt to an evolving regulatory environment. Preparing CS students for the new challenges of an AI-saturated technology industry should therefore constitute a key priority for the computing curriculum. In this work, we will outline a proposed framework for integrating discussions on the nascent AI policy landscape into computer science courses. Building on recent literature on AI governance and our synthesis of AI policy efforts in the United States and European Union, we propose guiding questions to frame class discussions around AI policy in technical and non-technical (e.g., ethics) CS courses. Throughout, we emphasize the connection between normative policy demands and still-open technical challenges relating to their implementation and enforcement through code and governance structures. We conclude by highlighting opportunities to utilize our framework in practice, reflecting on our experiences using this framework in piloting curricular interventions in the 2024-2025 and 2025-2026 academic years.