Maclean’s Magazine’s University Rankings Edition for 2022 highlights a growing trend in courses which aim to address the societal effects of artificial intelligence (AI) and teach “students to think about AI like philosophers”. Among the courses highlighted are Prof. Karina Vold’s new IHPST courses, including her course on the Limits of Machine Intelligence.
In The Limits of Machine Intelligence, students examine the idea that intelligence could be artificially built into a machine, and what it would mean to say that it has. Throughout the semester, students will explore some of the extant and imminent technologies under the umbrella of ‘artificial intelligence’; from the Turing machine to deep learning architecture, and the extensive literature purporting their (perceived) triumphs and shortcomings in terms of their capacities to be or to seem ‘intelligent’. As such, this course examines both the capacities attributed to machines and the nature of intelligence, including such questions as: What do AI researchers and developers mean by “intelligence”, and how does this compare to how the term is used in other branches of science? Could a machine ever be creative, ethically aligned, or have common sense? How close are we to building general intelligence or human-level AI and what is still needed to get us there? Through reading and discussing a collection of contemporary texts across the fields of philosophy, artificial intelligence, comparative psychology and cognitive science, students will better understand both philosophical and practical issues facing the very idea of artificial intelligence.
You can read the full article on Maclean’s website: https://www.macleans.ca/society/technology/what-does-artificial-intelligence-mean-for-our-world/. Congratulations, Professor Vold, on this great recognition!