3.0

Average Course Rating

The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the most powerful—and controversial—breakthroughs of our lifetime. Some say that large language models, like ChatGPT, are oracles that will render human thought obsolete. Others say that these models are “stochastic parrots” with no real understanding of the text they produce. Who is right? And what would it even mean for a machine to be able to think and use languages like humans do? This course will give students the tools to answer these questions and critically analyze AI through a grounding in cognitive science, with a focus on language. Topics will include the technical foundation of language models, human language learning, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, reasoning, creativity, and how AI use is affecting our own minds. Strongly recommended: prior course in programming and/or probability theory.