IN-PERSON: Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Robotics   

**This class will be taught In-Person**
 

The recent introduction of ChatGPT has resulted in an explosion in the discussion of Artificial Intelligence(AI) and its creative, legal, and ethical implications. Hardly a day passes when there is not a news story about a new application of this software. Some pundits see AI (and its latest incarnation in ChatGPT) as a highwater mark in technology, others see it as a viable threat to humanity. This course will examine the roots of ChatGPT with a broad view of Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Robotics from their history in myth and literature, to their actual implementation and to the social and ethical issues they might bring to the present and future. 

• Week 1

  • What do we mean by Intelligence, Artificial Intelligence and Artificial Life?

  • Artificial Intelligence and Robotics in popular culture – from 2001: A Space Odyssey to The Terminator, Bladerunner, The Matrix and many more-

    • What did these portrayals of the technology get right? What did they get wrong?

    • How has popular culture affected the perception and reception of the technologies by the general public?

• Week 2

  • The growth of Artificial Intelligence as a serious discipline – are machines really capable of independent thought? Can machines realy create?

    • What are the fundamental concepts of AI, ML and Robotics?

    • What are the associated technologies that have driven the evolution and growth of these fields?

    • A look at the current research and technical challenges.

• Week 3

  • AI, ML and Robotics in the enterprise – how business and corporations are using the technologies and driving their innovation. What is the hype and what is the reality?

• Week 4

  • Personal and social implications – AI-driven systems as friends, co-workers, servants, bosses, pets, lovers and anything else we might interact with.

  • The realization that AI is already here and being used in unexpected and unrealized ways – from recommendations to call centers to Alexa. How might we recognize it?

• Week 5

  • The Singularity – are AI, ML and Robotics an unstoppable part of the predicted path for human evolution? What are augmented systems?

• Week 6

  • Is the “AI race”  real as nations strive for supremacy in the field? Do these technologies represent a global threat or opportunity?