FYS 27 Reimagining Intelligence: What Does it Mean to be Human in the Age of AI?
Even though we do it every day, recognizing a face isn’t as easy as it seems. Different hairstyles or a sideways angle fooled our best algorithms for decades. Using principles from the human brain, artificial neural networks can now recognize faces, write stories, and even create art. Some believe these algorithms have even passed our benchmark for evaluating whether a machine possesses human-like intelligence, the classic “Turing test”. Students in this course will understand how the human brain inspired these algorithms by reading neuroscience literature, philosophy of mind literature, and implementing code. With these tools, students will explore how these algorithms shed light on, and challenge, what it means to be human. No experience is required to succeed in this course but a strong interest in cognitive science, computer science, philosophy, mathematics and/or statistics will be beneficial. Open only to first-year frosh.