H3 Spring 2024

Name: Generative AI for Managers

CLASS TIMES AND LOCATIONS
● Tuesday & Thursday, 4:00PM - 5:30PM, E51-325
● There are 2 Friday recitations for labs 1 and 2 (see schedule). Time and room TBD

OVERVIEW
This course is designed to equip managers and founders with the tools needed to excel in a
future of generative AI. Students are expected to participate in seminar-style discussion,
hands-on labs, and a series of lectures. This isn’t a technical course, but it’s intended to give
students an understanding for those managing developer teams all the way to the executive
level. Topics covered include LLMs, image generation, emerging generative AI use cases, the

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business, economic, and strategic implications of generative AI, prompt engineering, fine tuning,
business case analysis, and the VC / startup landscape. Capped at 50 students
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What the course is not:

● A coding course to learn algorithms (see 6.5940 & 6.S896)

●
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Law and ethics for AI or data (see 15.622 & 15.630)
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● Economics of information goods (see 15.567)

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What the course is:

● A deep dive into generative AI, how it works, its use cases, and business implications
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● A mix of lectures, discussion seminars, and hands-on labs

● Some hands-on labs with focus on prompting LLMs and diffusion models (e.g. Dall-e) as
well as creating custom GPTs - we may do some fine-tuning time-permitting.

PREREQUISITES
There are no prerequisites for the class, however there are resource requirements you must
prepare prior to the first day of class.
● Download Adobe Creative Cloud (free for MIT students)
● Purchase a GPT-4 subscription (in lieu of us having any physical course materials you
must set up GPT-4, the premium version for $20 for February and March)
● Ensure Google Bard is working on your laptop (free); have a Google account setup
● Also create a free Claude and Perplexity account

GRADING & PARTICIPATION

Grades will be calculated using the following breakdown:
● Participation: 30% (both attendance and discussion)
● Assignments: 30% (10% for each of the 3); no late days allowed
● Final Project: 40% (30% write up, 10% slides + presentation)
Participation will be calculated on both contribution to discussion as well as attendance. The two
Friday recitations on 02/16 and 03/01 are required and missing them will severely impact your
attendance grade. If you cannot attend those two sessions please drop the class before the
semester begins so we can allow waitlisters to join. Deliverables are due by 4:00 PM the day in
which assignments are listed

Class expectations: the three Rs

1. Readings completed
2. Ready to engage in discussion
3. Readable name-tag displayed

We follow Sloan policies on absences; more than two unexcused absences will reduce your
final grade by a letter grade.

Laptop and phones

💻👍
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closed (💻❌
There are times when I want you to use your laptop ( ) and times when I want them
). Primarily, when other people are talking, and we are in a discussion, laptops
should be closed. This ensures that our attention is focused on the topic and on each other.
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Please keep your phone in your pocket or face down.

On class participation
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I reserve the right to cold-call ( ). I know people don't always like this, but it's a good way to
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hear from different voices. But you can always pass if you want to.
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TEACHING TEAM:
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Instructor(s)
John Horton (call me John)
Associate Professor of Information Technologies, MIT Sloan School of Management
MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy
MIT Office: E62-422
http://john-joseph-horton.com/
Email: jjhorton@mit.edu
Assistant is Mimosa Nguyen-Ha at mimosa31@mit.edu

TA(s) - Please CC Both Simultaneously For All Email Inquiries

● Tim Valicenti
Email: tvalicen@mit.edu

● Jack O’Brien
Email: jackob@mit.edu

OFFICE HOURS
There are no official office hours for this course. Students can request 1-on-1 meetings with the
TAs or instructors, at any time, after checking availability.
CALENDAR OF CLASSES OVERVIEW
KEY

Models, LLMs, and Diffusers Final Projects

Business, Economics, and Strategy (BES) Mandatory Friday Lab Session

Day Topic Readings Assignment Due

Tu: 02/06 Intro to Generative AI

Th: 02/08 LLMs & ChatGPT - AI Arms Race

- How ChatGPT is Trained

Tu: 02/13 Prompt Engineering - Intro to prompt engineering

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- Hallucination

Th: 02/15 BES I: AI in the Workplace

Fr: 02/16
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Lab 1: Prompt Engineering

Tu: 02/20 No Class - Monday Schedule

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Th: 02/22 BES II: AI Value Chain - AI Wars Assignment 1 Due: Homo
- Gen AI Value Chain Silicus
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Tu: 02/27 Case: Open Source & - Serving an AI Platform

Hugging Face
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Th: 02/29 BES III: Economics of Gen AI - What is Gen AI Assignment 2 Due: Value
- CEO Guide to AI Chain Memo
- Goldman Report
- Economic Potential

Fr: 03/01 Lab 2: Image Generation

Tu: 03/05 Lab 3: Fine-Tuning & RAG

Th: 03/07 Case: Execution & Replika AI - Monetizing a ChatBot Assignment 3 Due:
- Should You Start an AI Product Page
Company?

Tu: 03/12 Project Readouts I Final Projects Due:

Custom-GPT

Th: 03/14 Project Readouts II

Tu: 03:19 No Class - SIP

Th: 03/21 No Class - SIP

Frequent Q&A’s

1. How to register for 15.S68 class and get access to class materials on the Canvas
site?
○ Use course bidding system…if bidding has ended see below
○ For MIT Students, please follow these steps:
i. Register online or download a registration form. Form needs to be
signed by John Horton (TA’s cannot sign). Please submit an add form and
email John to ask him to approve.
ii. Canvas Access- the course will not be using canvas.
○ For NON-MIT Students, please follow these steps:
i. To officially register for this class, ALL students must download, fill, sign
(by John) and submit the add/drop form. See above step A under MIT

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student instructions for additional information.
ii. All students must get an @mit.edu email address, which means you need
rs 20to register for a Kerberos password. Additional instructions:
http://ist.mit.edu/start/kerberos#identity. If you have any issues, you can
contact the MIT IS&T Help Desk, information below:
IS&T Help Desk
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E17-110, 40 Ames Street
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Walk-ins: 9AM-5PM, M-F

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Email: helpdesk@mit.edu
Phone: 617-253-1101 (3-1101)
Telephone/Online: 8AM-6PM, M-F
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2. What should you do if you registered late for 15.S68? Please make sure you’re fully
registered for the class from the registrar. Please read all class announcements and
complete all homework and class assignments as soon as possible. We understand
students will be adding the course for the first 1-2 weeks of class and TA’s will note when
you have joined the class.

NOTE REGARDING INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS

Work done in the class is purely for academic purposes and there is no explicit or implicit
agreement that teams that are formed in the class are obligated in any way to share their
intellectual property or equity in a new venture that comes out of the class. We are an
educational institution and not an economic development agency or an investment accelerator.