Understanding AI: WC (Minor)
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Program Description
Can machines think? What does it mean to be intelligent? What’s next?
From its humble beginnings in 1956 as an undergraduate summer research question to a 10+ trillion dollar industry in the 2020s powered by exascale data centers and global supply chains, artificial intelligence, or AI, has been through many cycles of “AI booms” and “AI winters” but has always wrestled with these central questions. And these fundamental questions predate AI, hailing from a rich intellectual tradition including philosophy, engineering, linguistics, the arts, and the sciences! In this program, students will formally approach questions of language, motivated by the emergence of large language models, and approach generalized, formal models for perception, thought, and learning that apply broadly to all intelligent systems.
In this program, students will apply proven, interdisciplinary methodologies to critically engage with AI, its capabilities, and its implications. Students will emerge prepared to turn knowledge into action with present and future AI technologies.
From its humble beginnings in 1956 as an undergraduate summer research question to a 10+ trillion dollar industry in the 2020s powered by exascale data centers and global supply chains, artificial intelligence, or AI, has been through many cycles of “AI booms” and “AI winters” but has always wrestled with these central questions. And these fundamental questions predate AI, hailing from a rich intellectual tradition including philosophy, engineering, linguistics, the arts, and the sciences! In this program, students will formally approach questions of language, motivated by the emergence of large language models, and approach generalized, formal models for perception, thought, and learning that apply broadly to all intelligent systems.
In this program, students will apply proven, interdisciplinary methodologies to critically engage with AI, its capabilities, and its implications. Students will emerge prepared to turn knowledge into action with present and future AI technologies.
College or School
Willamette College