AI and the World

Catalog description

This course is a nontechnical introduction to Artificial Intelligence (AI) as it exists in the modern world, focusing on machine learning, neural networks, and generative AI models such as ChatGPT and its contemporaries. The course covers the foundations of how these models work, applications and practical use of generative AI models, and the current limitations and future of AI. Students will emerge from the course better prepared to thrive in an increasingly AI-affected world, as well as to further their AI skills if they so choose. This is a discovery course in the Environment, Technology and Society (ETS) category, and is meant for everyone, requiring no technical background or other prerequisites. The coursework chiefly consists of classroom activities, readings, and written responses. Many course assignments will ask students to envision the application of varying aspects of AI to their own major or field of interest, and the implications and ethical considerations thereof.