AI Journal
At the beginning of the semester create a Google account, and then create a single Google doc titled last name Artificial Intelligence. The title of the document is up in the left hand corner. All of your written work for the semester will be put into this document.
Video: Creating a Google Doc
Each week, you will add a writing assignment to this document. (Do not create separate documents for the different assignments). There are detailed instructions about Google accounts and documents on the syllabus. You will have one Google doc and all of these journal entries will be added to it. Each week, put the new one at the top of the document and give that section the whole, exact title from the instructions in bold print. So for the first one, the title would be: 1 The Great AI Awakening.
Grading Criteria for the Journal: There are too many students and too many video project entries for me to give many individual comments or grades on them. I will give some feedback early in the semester, but after that, it will be up to the student to follow these instructions:
1) All of the entries must be completed. Any missing projects will result in a proportional reduction in the overall grade.
2) All of the journal entries must be completed on time. The time and date when it was submitted is available to me in the Revision History tab of Google Docs. Any revisions that occur after the due date will also be evident in the Revision History view. Late assignments will not be accepted.
3) All of the questions in the individual projects must be addressed. And they must be addressed specifically and thoroughly. Copy and paste the full particular assignment directly into the document, then answer each question directly and at length. Entries that fail to quote and answer each question will be graded down.
4) It will vary from project to project, but doing a thorough and acceptable job of addressing the questions will typically take at least 300 words. A few sentences or two short paragraphs won't be sufficient.
5) The entries must be completely free of spelling, grammar, and structure errors. They must meet the standards of written college English. Any entries that have spelling, grammar, and writing structure errors will not receive credit. Entries that are a single block of text with no paragraphs or thesis sentence organization will not receive credit.
6) The entries must reflect a clear understanding of the arguments, concepts, principles, and distinctions that the philosopher in the video makes. The entries must be long enough and detailed enough to reflect your understanding.
7) If you are in doubt, write more. Take the opportunity to expand on the topic and questions under consideration. Offer some of your own ideas in addition to addressing the project questions. Entries that are only 5 sentences long, for example, will not receive credit.
During the semester, and at the end, I will review all of your entries. The grade on this portion of the coursework will be proportional to the extent to which they meet all of these criteria.
Here are the assignments:
Journal 1: The Great AI Awakening Read this article carefully: The Great AI Awakening What is the great AI awakening? How was Google Translate changed? How did Google change it? (what computing techniques made the innovation possible?). What are the social and philosophical implications of the change? What does the change suggest about where AI technology is going and what could happen next?
The title of this entry should be 1 The Great AI Awakening. (Please do not center justify any parts of your entries: the titles or the text.) This will be the first entry in your Google Doc that has the name last name AI that you created according to the instructions on the syllabus and shared with mccormick@csus.edu. This entry is due by 11:59 pm, Sunday, Jan. 28. Your entry should be at least 300 words long. Quote the questions and answer each carefully in composed paragraphs. It should conform to the writing standards of college English.
Journal 2: Watson and Natural Language Processing Study this Ted Talk carefully:
Bayes Rule and Watson Why is Watson a big deal? What is philosophically important about what Watson is able to do, and how might it be relevant to the question of machines with cognitive powers like humans?
The title of this entry should be 2 Watson and Natural Language Processing (Please do not center justify any parts of your entries: the titles or the text.) This will be the second entry in your Google Doc that has the name last name AI that you created according to the instructions on the syllabus and shared with mccormick@csus.edu. Put this entry above the first entry so that the newest entries are always on top. This entry is due by 11:59 pm, Sunday, Feb. 2. Your entry should be at least 300 words long. Quote the questions and answer each carefully in composed paragraphs. It should conform to the writing standards of college English.
Journal 3: AI Image Recognition. Study this Ted Talk Fei-Fei Li: Teaching Computers to understand pictures. What is philosophically significant about how Fei-Fei Li and researchers like her are building machines that can understand pictures and identify objects? From a philosophical standpoint, what's hard about recognizing objects in images? Why have computers struggled with it? What are the new methods for improving computers' performance? What do the improved capacities suggest about the potential for machines to think more like humans or even have some sort of consciousness?
The title of this entry should be 3 AI Image Recognition. This entry is due by 11:59 pm, Sunday, Feb. 9. Your entry should be at least 300 words long. Quote the questions and answer each carefully in composed paragraphs. It should conform to the writing standards of college English.
Journal 4: Ex Machina Watch Ex Machina. (It's on Amazon Prime Video, and YouTube ($3.99)) What is significantly different about the Turing Test that Caleb runs on Eva from the Turing Test as A.M. Turing envisioned it? Is the movie version of the test as good, reliable, or philosophically insightful as Turing's version? Why or why not? Are there factors that confound the test? Explain.
The title of this entry should be 4 Ex Machina This entry is due by 11:59 pm, Sunday, Feb. 16. Your entry should be at least 300 words long. Quote the questions and answer each carefully in composed paragraphs. It should conform to the writing standards of college English.
Journal Entry 5: Kurzweil's Singularity. Consider Ray Kurzweil's discussion in: The Coming Singularity
What is the Singularity as Kurzweil characterizes it? What is his argument for the conclusion that it is coming soon? Critically analyze this argument.
The title of this entry should be 5 Kurzweil's Singularity This entry is due by 11:59 pm, Sunday, Feb. 23. Your entry should be at least 300 words long. Quote the questions and answer each carefully in composed paragraphs. It should conform to the writing standards of college English.
Journal 6: The Myth of a Superhuman AI Study the arguments in Kevin Kelly's The Myth of a Superhuman AI carefully. What are Kelly's reasons to doubt an AI singularity? How good are these arguments? Do they undermine the arguments raised by Kurzweil, Bostrom, and others? Explain.
The title of this entry should be 6 The Myth of Superhuman AI This entry is due by 11:59 pm, Sunday, March 1. Your entry should be at least 300 words long. Quote the questions and answer each carefully in composed paragraphs. It should conform to the writing standards of college English.
Journal 7: Bostrom's Singularity Consider Ross Anderson's Human extinction What are the arguments given by Bostrom and others in Anderson's article for assigning a high risk to the development of superintelligent AI, or other technological advances? What are the dangers? Critical evaluate these arguments.
The title of this entry should be 7 Bostrom's Singularity. This entry is due by 11:59 pm, Sunday, March 8. Your entry should be at least 300 words long. Quote the questions and answer each carefully in composed paragraphs. It should conform to the writing standards of college English.
Journal 8: Controlling AI. Sam Harris: Can we build AI without losing control over it? What is Sam Harris' argument concerning the imminent dangers of superintelligent AI? What is the nature of the danger? Why, according to Harris, are we struggling to understand and prepare for the problem? What, according to Harris, can and should we do about it?
The title of this entry should be 8 Controlling AI. This entry is due by 11:59 pm, Sunday, March 15. Your entry should be at least 300 words long. Quote the questions and answer each carefully in composed paragraphs. It should conform to the writing standards of college English.
Journal 9: Superintelligent AI. Nick Bostrom What happens when our computers get smarter than we are? How will computers, according to Bostrom, get smarter than us? What is the character of the intelligence arc that machines are on? What is super intelligent AI, according to Bostrom? What are the dangers associated with it?
The title of this entry should be 9 Superintelligent AI. This entry is due by 11:59 pm, Sunday, March 22. Your entry should be at least 300 words long. Quote the questions and answer each carefully in composed paragraphs. It should conform to the writing standards of college English.
Journal 10: Killer Robots Watch Killer Robots. Give a list of benefits that might accrue from these kinds of technological developments. Give a list of consequences. List and discuss some philosophical and ethical implications of the benefits, and list and consider some of the philosophical and ethical implications of the consequences.
The title of this entry should be 10 Killer Robots. This entry is due by 11:59 pm, Sunday, March 29. Your entry should be at least 300 words long. Quote the questions and answer each carefully in composed paragraphs. It should conform to the writing standards of college English.
Journal 11: Sex Robots Kate Devlin Sex robots Give a list of the benefits that Devlin suggests we might acquire from sex robot technologies. Give a list of consequences. List and discuss some of the philosophical and ethical implications of the benefits as you see them. And list and consider some of the philosophical and ethical implications of the consequences, as you see them.
The title of this entry should be 11 Sex Robots. This entry is due by 11:59 pm, Sunday, April 12. Your entry should be at least 300 words long. Quote the questions and answer each carefully in composed paragraphs. It should conform to the writing standards of college English.
Journal 12: Humans Need Not Apply. Watch Humans Need Not Apply According to CGP Grey, what are the economic implications of AI technological developments? What are the advantages that we stand to acquire? What are the negative implications?
The title of this entry should be 12 Humans Need Not Apply. This entry is due by 11:59 pm, Sunday, April 19. Your entry should be at least 300 words long. Quote the questions and answer each carefully in composed paragraphs. It should conform to the writing standards of college English.
Journal 13: Moral Robots. Watch How to Build a Moral Robot What are the challenges to building a morally behaving robot? What are the approaches that the researchers are taking to building a moral robot? What's the robot trolley problem?
The title of this entry should be 13 Moral Robots. This entry is due by 11:59 pm, Sunday, April 26. Your entry should be at least 300 words long. Quote the questions and answer each carefully in composed paragraphs. It should conform to the writing standards of college English.
Journal 14: Self Driving Cars. Watch The Ethical Dilemma of Self-Driving Cars. What are the ethical problems associated with self driving cars? Why are they more complicated than they might be with human drivers? What benefits can we acquire from technologically improved cars?
The title of this entry should be 14 Self Driving Cars. This entry is due by 11:59 pm, Sunday, May 3. Your entry should be at least 300 words long. Quote the questions and answer each carefully in composed paragraphs. It should conform to the writing standards of college English.