Understanding AI Requirements

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 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.

Requirements for the Understanding AI Minor (20 semester hours)

• At least 5 total courses distributed across each theme.

• At least 1 course from each theme.

Themes and Courses

Note: All courses listed below are 4 semester hours unless otherwise specified.

Theme: Computation

• AI 101 Understanding AI

Theme: Natural and Constructed Intelligence

• One of:

  • MATH 251W Foundations of Advanced Mathematics

  • PHIL 140 Symbolic Logic

• PHIL-360W Philosophy of Mind

• PSYC 350 Cognitive Processes*

Theme: Technology, Language, and Ethics

• ANTH 346 Technology and Society

• IDS 155 Introduction to Linguistics

• MUSC 223 Music and AI: Creative Practices and Critical Inquiry

• PHIL 235W Philosophical Ethics

* PSYC 350 has a hidden PSYC 210 requirement which may discretionarily be met by AP or transfer credit.