Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies that are increasingly powerful and ubiquitous are transforming all aspects of our lives – from how we work to how we make sense of the world around us to how we extract knowledge from data to how we diagnose and treat diseases to how we learn to how we interact with others to how we create works of art. To successfully thrive in a world being transformed by AI and to engage meaningfully in helping shape highly consequential societal policies and regulations around AI, every citizen needs a basic understanding AI, its benefits as well as its potential for harm. This course is designed to provide such an accessible understanding of AI.
This course will cover key concepts needed to understand recent AI advances, as well as the ethical and societal implications of AI technologies. Students will acquire general AI literacy, including:
- Intellectual roots of AI
- Disparate goals of AI
- Many types of AI and their applications
- The risks and benefits of AI technologies
- The societal impacts of AI technologies
- How to tell AI science from science fiction
