Course Details

Course offered Autumn 2019

HONORS 220 C: Artificial Intelligence: It's Your Future, Ready or Not (NSc)

HONORS 220 C: Artificial Intelligence: It's Your Future, Ready or Not (NSc)

SLN 15995 (View UW registration info »)

Richard Freeman (Physics)
Email: rrfree@uw.edu

Credits: 5
Limit: 25 students

Honors Credit Type

Over the last 30 years, the computational capabilities of computers has increased by many orders of magnitude, to a point now that highly sophisticated software routines enable applications that not only mimic human intelligence but promise to surpass human abilities in many areas. This future, originally labeled as science fiction, is now widely recognized as inevitable: the robots are coming, and they are clearly going to replace human beings in many, if not most, work environments.

So, it seems like an appropriate time to undertake an appraisal of the A.I. field:  What is the current state of the science and engineering, with an emphasis on what are the likely societal impacts. Will robots indeed make many, if not most, current job categories obsolete? If so, what will humans do in a world of no work?  Is the threat of robots building robots mark an existential threat for humans? What about privacy and security in a world of ubiquitous A.I. monitoring?

Or, on the other hand, are these and other “scary scenarios” just so much internet-fueled hype?  Is this advance in computer power essentially just another technology-enabled displacement of the kind we have lived through in the past 19th and 20th centuries? After all, western societies transitioned from rural configurations where 95% of the population were employed in agriculture, to modern ones where less than 5% have anything to do with raising food; and yet, there was no accompanying mass unemployment. Will we successfully transition this A.I. displacement as well, or is there something unique and fundamentally different, requiring a wholesale reorganization of our society?

This course will involve wide reading, preparation and delivery of presentations, and debates surrounding the nature of human vs. machine. We will look into the history of A.I., and try to evaluate the current state-of-art. We will read contemporary futurists, and construct our own future predictions.

The course will emphasize presentations, either in a group or individually. There will be several short essay assignments, and a final term paper and presentation. We will often have guest speakers, ranging from technology experts, to campus leaders concerned with the philosophical implications of a “robot future”.  The course will be graded on your presentations, written submissions, and, importantly, on your class participation.