AI, Society, and Humanity

9 units · Undergraduate

Fall: 9 units The course is divided into three parts. The first part centers on the foundational question of the field of AI: "Can machines think?" We will consider an operationalization of the question and #8212;-the Turing Test and #8212;-and a philosophical criticism thereof and #8212;-the Chinese Room Argument. Along the way, we will encounter the principles governing digital computers and artificial neural networks. The next part is on the impacts of AI on society. We will investigate in what sense machine learning algorithms can be said to be "unfair" or "discriminatory". We will discuss the black box problem and #8212;-the problem that we often don't understand how the output of a machine learning model came about. Further topics include the risks posed by large language models, fake news, echo chambers, twitter aka X, and other threats to democracy. The last part is on the potential impacts of AI on humanity. We will discuss whether humanity is at risk due to the singularity and #8212;-an anticipated explosion of artificial intelligence such that some AI systems surpass human-level intelligence. Does such a superintelligence pose an existential risk to humanity? What is the probability that we are doomed in the wake of artificial superintelligence? Can we change this probability by aligning AI with human values? These are but some of the core questions we will tackle.