AI is a multi-disciplinary topic. While a lot of the research is on new algorithms to solve problems, one cannot escape the fundamental question about what intelligence is. We can also see that AI leads to a number of ethical concerns, begging the question if AI is beneficial, and if some branches of malevolent, what can we do about it?

This module seeks to discuss both technical and philosophical aspects of AI.

Core Syllabus

• Russel & Norvig

Technical Texts

• Epstein 2009 Parsing the Turing Test.
  • Turing’s celebrated 1950 article is Chapter 3.
    This is highly recommended.

Philosophical Texts

All of these questions are part of the syllabus, but no textbook can possibly answer them in full. The following reading list highlights some viewpoints which are worth considering.

• Robert A. Heinlein: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
• Philip K. Dick: Do androids dream of electric sheep? (The story is also known as the film Bladerunner, but the book gives more food for thought.)
• Joseph Weisenbaum: Computer Power and Human Reason (1976)
• Donald A. Schön: The Reflective Practitioner (1983)
• Herbert Simon: Sciences of the Artificial (1st edition 1969 and third edition 1996)

All of these books are very readable.

For the record, Simon and Weizenbaum are notable pioneers in Artifical Intelligence. Weizenbaum is known for the psuchotherapy chatbot called ELIZA, and Simon for the General Problem Solver which is also cited by Russel and Norvig.

Heinlein and Dick write fiction; I recommend these two books because they specifically address the boundary between man and machine.
There are of course many other books worth reading to explore this question. These two are simply the best that I have read.

Schön, like Simon, write about design and development method. In particular, Schön challenges the mechanistic and scientific approach to design and engineering, and may thus address the limits of artificial intelligence.