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Course Summary
Recent advances in computing may place us at the threshold of a unique turning point in human history. Soon we are likely to entrust management of our environment, economy, security, infrastructure, food production, healthcare, and to a large degree even our personal activities, to artificially intelligent computer systems.Grades: | Letter grade |
Credits: | 3, or 4 with in-class presentation |
Lectures: | 2 x 75 minutes per week |
Reading: | 2 hours per week |
Essays: | 3 x 1500 words |
Course Information
Instructor: Jerry Kaplan
Course assistants:
Contact: Please email cs122-aut1415-staff@lists.stanford.edu for all questions.
Prerequisites: None. All interested undergraduate and graduate students are welcome.
Map: Hewlett Teaching Center Rm. 201
Lecture Videos: Missed a lecture? Click here to see the show. (SUnet ID required.)
Preliminary Schedule
Date | Topic | Reading | Speaker(s) | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Sep 23 | Course Overview | Watch this cool YouTube video. | Kaplan | |
Sep 25 | History and Philosophy of AI | Kaplan Book Excerpt | Kaplan | |
Sep 30 | Upload or Die: Identity and Free Will |
"Can Animals and Machines be Persons?", Justin Leiber, 1985 | Kaplan | |
Oct 2 | Should you step into the Star Trek transporter? | Watch this Outer Limits episode, and read "His Master's Voice", Hannu Rajaniemi | Brad Templeton, Singularity University, Electronic Frontier Foundation | Confirmed |
Oct 7 | Never Mind: The Case Against Artificial Intelligence |
"Minds, Brains, and Programs", Searle, 1980, "Computer Machinery and Intelligence", Turing, 1950 and "Understanding, Orientations, and Objectivity", Winograd, 2002 | Kaplan | |
Oct 9 | Can a Machine have a Mind? | "What Your Computer Can't Know", Searle, 2014 | John Searle, UC Berkeley, Philosophy | Confirmed |
Oct 14 | Meet the New Boss: The Economics of Intelligent Automation | Kaplan Book Excerpt #2 and "Manna", Chapters 1-4, Marshall Brain | Kaplan | |
Oct 16 | The Devil Made Me Do It: Robot Crime and Punishment | "How Should the Law Think About Robots?", Neil M.Richards and William Smart | Kaplan | |
Oct 21 | TBA | Daniel Siciliano Stanford Law School |
Confirmed | |
Oct 23 | Talk to my Agent: Civilized Robots for a Human World | "Autonomous technology and the greater human good", Omohundro, 2014 | Kaplan | |
Oct 28 | Autonomous Technology and the Greater Human Good | Steve Omohundro, Self-Aware Systems | Confirmed | |
Oct 30 | Pay no Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain: Anthropomorphism in AI | Watch the movies Robot and Frank and Her | Kaplan | |
Nov 4 | "Robot Emotion: A Functional Perspective", Cynthia Breazeal and Rodney Brooks, 2003 | David Hanson, Founder, Hanson Robotics | Confirmed | |
Nov 6 | Designing Skynet: Computational Ethics and Military Applications of AI |
"Moral Predators: The Duty to Employ Uninhabited Aerial Vehicles", Bradley Jay Strawser and "The Robotics Revolution", Peter Singer, 2012 | Kaplan | |
Nov 11 | Should we deploy autonomous weapons? | Patrick Lin, Ethics and Emerging Sciences Group, Cal Poly SLO | Confirmed | |
Nov 13 | Get an Artificial Life: A Future History of AI |
Kaplan | ||
Nov 18 | T.B.D. | |||
Nov 20 | Don't Touch that Dial: AI in Popular Media | "How Humans Respond to Robots: Building Public Policy Through Good Design", Heather Knight, 2014 | Kaplan | |
Nov 25,27 | Thanksgiving Break | |||
Dec 2 | Student Presentations | |||
Dec 4 | AI and Faith | Kaplan |
Course Structure and Policies
The course is organized into five segments:
You should read each week's assignment in advance of the first class of the week. This should take you at most two hours.
There will be three 1500-word essays due during the course, at the end of segments 2, 3, and 4 above, on assigned topics. (Specific due dates TBA.)
For students taking the course for four credits, individual or small-group projects will be presented to the class during the final week.
Where to find the homework assignments and due dates: These are listed on Coursework.stanford.edu. Log in using your SUNet ID. Find the course (you can search for CS 122 or SymSys 122). Click on "Assignments" in the left menu to access the assignments and due dates.
How to submit your homework: We will be using Coursework for submitting, grading and providing feedback on assignments. To submit your completed assignment (i.e. a single file containing one essay), click on "Dropbox" in the left menu, the upload your essay as a .pdf file please. Double spaced text is preferable. Please designate the file with your name and the assignment number. If the grader has specific comments, they may upload a revised version of your essay with comments. You can check back anytime to see it if has been read, graded, etc.
Homework is due at or before 11:59PM on the due date, which is specified in the Assignments page on Coursework. Late homework may receive a reduced grade unless arrangements are made in advance with course staff.
You are encouraged to talk about the homework with other students, but your final essay submissions must be your own original work.