Unit 1 Overview: Foundations of Artificial Intelligence
Unit 1: Foundations of Artificial Intelligence — Overview
Welcome to Week 1 of CSC 114. This week marks the beginning of your journey into artificial intelligence. You will explore what AI actually is, trace its fascinating history from the 1950s to today, and examine both its remarkable achievements and important limitations.
Start here: an introduction to what artificial intelligence is and why it matters.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this unit, you should be able to:
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Explain four different approaches to defining artificial intelligence
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Describe how AI has evolved from the Dartmouth Conference to modern deep learning systems
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Distinguish between narrow AI (what we have now) and artificial general intelligence (still theoretical)
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Identify major AI applications across different domains and assess their social impact
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Discuss ethical considerations surrounding AI technology with reference to established frameworks
Reading Assignments
This unit draws on the following open resources. No textbook purchase is required.
- NIST AI Risk Management Framework (AI RMF 1.0)
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The NIST AI RMF provides foundational vocabulary and a trustworthy AI framework used throughout this course. Read the overview page at NIST AI Risk Management Framework.
- Montreal AI Ethics Institute (MAIEI)
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The MAIEI publishes accessible reports on real-world AI ethics. Explore the Living Dictionary and State of AI Ethics reports at montrealethics.ai.
- Poole & Mackworth — Artificial Intelligence (3rd ed.)
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Chapter 1: "Artificial Intelligence and Agents" is freely available online. This chapter parallels the four definitional lenses discussed in Section 1.1.
Weekly Schedule
| Days | Tasks |
|---|---|
Monday — Tuesday |
Read Section 1.1 (What Is AI?) and Section 1.2 (History of AI). Complete the TRY IT activities on both pages. |
Wednesday — Thursday |
Read Section 1.3 (Narrow vs. General AI). Complete the TRY IT activity. |
Friday — Saturday |
Read Sections 1.4 (AI in the Real World) and 1.5 (Ethics and Societal Impact). Complete both TRY IT activities. |
Throughout the week |
Work on the Lab: AI Systems in the Wild (due end of week). Complete the Wrap-Up self-assessment. |
This is the first unit of CSC 114, so there is no prerequisite unit. However, bring your curiosity: AI intersects philosophy, mathematics, psychology, engineering, and ethics. Every discipline you have studied before connects to something in this course.
If you have taken a programming course, you will find Python examples throughout later units. No prior Python experience is required for Unit 1 — the focus here is conceptual.
Original content for CSC 114: Artificial Intelligence I, Central Piedmont Community College.
This work is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.