Brendan Meade (Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences)
First-Year Seminar 51C | 4 Credits (Fall 2024) | CANVAS SITE
Thursday, 03:00 PM–05:45 PM
Science is focused on discovering and explaining the world around and within us. This has been its goal for hundreds of years and has produced astonishing breakthroughs from population genetics, to general relativity, to plate tectonics. Artificial intelligence is touted as a tool for learning about a complex system in ways that humans cant and has seen exceptional progress in natural language processing and image identification. In this class we explore the emerging linkages between scientific inquiry and artificial intelligence. The central goal of this class is to question the classical role of the scientist as a creator of theories and consider how scientists may become interpreters of theories developed by AI. We do this by developing an understanding of how AI systems actually work (theyre astonishingly simple), explain recent success cases, and then consider how we may (or may not) rebuild science in an AI-first manner. Examples will be drawn from the earth and planetary sciences as well as the life sciences.
Note: High school calculus and/or computer programming would be extremely useful.