AP/PHIL/COGS 3750 Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence
Winter 2011
Cognitive Science Program,
York University
Course Description
This course is an introductory exposition to topics in Artificial
Intelligence (AI). It covers, in some depth, some core subjects of
current research and deployed applications in AI: search, knowledge
representation, reasoning, intelligent agents and their modeling,
acting and planning, neural networks, and genetic algorithms. Other
important subareas of AI, such as robotics or computer vision, are
discussed in depth in other courses.
Prerequisites
At least six credits in philosophy, including AP/PHIL 2100 3.00 and
one of AP/PHIL 2160 3.00 or AP/PHIL 2240 3.00.
What's New
- The April 4 and April 5 classes have been rescheduled to April 13 from 11:30 to 14:20 in room CSE 2002 (see below for the readings).
- Office hours are cancelled from April 1 to April 12, as the instructor is away at a conference; he can be contacted by email.
- An optional assignment is available here. This assignment is optional; if it is submitted, it will count for 10% of the course grade and the weight of the midterm test will be reduced from 30% to 20%. It is due in class on March 28.
- The lecture notes for the classes on Planning, the Frame Problem, and Non-Monotonic Reasoning have been posted here.
- Some guidelines on class presentations and term papers have been added below. Each student in the class must do either a class presentation or a term paper.
- There is no office hour on Feb 21 as the university is closed for Family Day. Offce hours on Feb 23 and 25 are being held at the normal times.
- See some AI history being made! On Feb 14 and the following two nights, watch IBM's Watson AI system
play Jeopardy against the two greatest champions; the program runs on CBC at 19:30.
- The midterm test will be on Feb. 16 during class.
It covers everything seen in class up to and including the Feb. 9
lecture, i.e. Chapters 1 to 5 inclusive of the Levesque textbook.
- The Programming Assignment is available
here. It is due Feb. 25 at 4pm (extended!).
For the first question use the code in
this family_asg.swipl file as a starting
point (change its name to
family_asg.pl
after downloading it).
- Classes start January 5.
Instructor
Prof. Yves Lespérance
Office: CSE 3052A
Tel: 736-2100 ext. 70146
Email: lesperan "at" cse.yorku.ca
Lectures
Monday and Wednesday, from 13:00 to 14:30 in ACW 303.
Instructor Office Hours
Monday and Wednesday 16:00-17:00, and Friday 15:00-16:00.
Textbook
Levesque, H.J.
Thinking as Computation: A First Course,
draft manuscript to appear, MIT Press, 2011.
Copies of this manuscript textbook will be sold at cost in class.
Evaluation Scheme
Programming assignment | 10% |
Midterm test | 30% |
Class presentation or term paper | 40% |
Class participation | 20% |
Total | 100% |
Guidelines for Class Presentation: Your task is to introduce
the paper/topic you have been assigned and lead the discussion on it
(contact the instructor to book a slot in the presentation schedule).
Start by giving a 20min presentation to introduce the paper (topic,
key concepts, main arguments, etc.) and list some issues (unclear
aspects, criticisms, counter arguments, etc.) for later discussion.
You may use Powerpoint or prepare an outline sheet to be distributed
(send these to the instructor at least 24h ahead of time). After your
presentation, lead a class discussion of the paper dealing with the
issues you have identified and any other issues raised.
Guidelines for Term Paper: This should be on a topic related to
the Philosophy of AI, possibly one covered in class (in this case your
paper must go beyond what is covered in class), or possibly a new
topic. The paper must present and critically discuss some of the
literature related to the selected topic. First prepare a one page
outline of your topic with a list of references, and submit it to the
instructor by March 9 at the latest for approval. After your outline
has been approved, proceed with your readings and writing the term
paper. There is a length limit of 3000 words (excluding references).
The term paper is due on April 5.
Tentative Schedule
The first half of the course will be an introduction to Artificial
Intelligence with an instructor lectures format. The second half of
the course will cover various topics in the philosophy of AI in a
seminar format, with student presentations and discussion.
- Week 1 (Jan 5) Introduction, Agent Architecture (Levesque ch. 1).
- Week 2 (Jan 10) Logic (Levesque ch. 2).
- Week 3 (Jan 17) Prolog Levesque ch. 3).
- Week 4 (Jan 24) Prolog Programming (Levesque ch. 4).
- Week 5 & 6 (Jan 31 & Feb 7) Constraint satisfaction (Levesque ch. 5).
- Week 7 (Feb 14) Vision (Levesque ch. 6).
- Midterm test in class on Feb 16.
- Reading Week (Feb 21) No lectures.
- Week 8 (Feb 28) Turing Test, Chinese Room (Levesque ch. 12).
- Week 9 (Mar 7) Goedelian Arguments, Emergence.
- Week 10 (Mar 14) Planning, Frame Problem, and Non-Monotonic Reasoning.
- Week 11 (Mar 21) Learning, Connectionism.
- Week 12 (Mar 28) Embodied AI, Robot Ethics.
- Week 13 (Apr 4) Innateness Controversy, AI and the Humanities.
Readings and Lecture Transparencies
- Week 1 (Jan 5)
Introduction and Intelligent Agents.
Required Readings: Levesque textbook, Chapter 1.
Optional Readings: Russell & Norvig Chapter 1 & 2.
Lecture transparencies for the Levesque textbook were emailed to the class.
Lecture transparencies for Russell & Norvig Ch. 1,
lecture transparencies for Russell & Norvig Ch. 2.
- Week 2 (Jan 10)
Elemantary Logic and Backchaining.
Required Readings: Levesque textbook, Chapter 2.
- Week 3 (Jan 17)
The Prolog Language.
Required Readings: Levesque textbook, Chapter 3.
- Week 4 (Jan 24)
Writing Prolog Programs.
Required Readings: Levesque textbook, Chapter 4.
- Week 5 and 6 (Jan 31 and Feb 7)
Satisfying Constraints.
Required Readings: Levesque textbook, Chapter 5.
- Week 7 (Feb 14)
Vision.
Required Readings: Levesque textbook, Chapter 6.
- Feb 28: The Turing Test.
Presenter:
Required Readings: Levesque textbook, Chapter 12, p. 266-269.
Alan Turing. Computing machinery and intelligence. Mind,
59, 433-460, 1950. Available at [http://mind.oxfordjournals.org/content/LIX/236/433].
- Mar 1 The Chinese Room Argument.
Presenter: Rachelle Innocent.
Required Readings: Levesque textbook, Chapter 12, p. 270-272.
John Searle. Minds, brains and programs. The Behavioral and Brain
Sciences, 3, 417-424, 1980. Available at [http://pami.uwaterloo.ca/tizhoosh/docs/Searle.pdf].
(Also of interest is the discussion at
[http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2004/entries/chinese-room].)
References: Fred Dretske. Machines and the Mental. In S. Franchi and G. Guzeldere (eds.),
Mechanical Bodies, Computational Minds.
Hector J. Levesque. Is it enough to get the behaviour right? In Proceedings of the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Pasadena, USA, 2009.
- Mar 7 Goedelian Arguments.
Presenter:
Required Readings: J. R. Lucas. Minds, Machines and Godel. Philosophy, 36
(137), 112-127, 1961. Available at [http://cogprints.org/356/0/lucas.html].
References: Chapter 3 of R. Penrose, Shadows of the Mind, or
alternatively Chapter 10 of R. Penrose, The Emperor's New Mind.
Critics:
R. Grush and P. Churchland, Gaps in Penrose's Toilings [http://mind.ucsd.edu/papers/penrose/penrose.pdf].
- Mar 9 Planning, the Frame Problem, and Non-Monotonic Reasoning I.
Presenter:
Lecture notes.
Required Readings: Levesque textbook Chapter 9, pages 193 to 199 and 212 to 217.
D. Dennett. Cognitive Wheels: The Frame Problem of AI. Chapter 2 (pp. 41-64) in Z. Pylyshyn (Ed.) The Robot's Dilemma: The Frame Problem in Artificial Intelligence.
References: Relevant sections of Russell & Norvig's AI textbook.
Z. Pylyshyn (Ed.). The Robot's Dilemma: The Frame Problem in in Artificial Intelligence, Ablex, Norwood NJ, USA, 1987.
K.M. Ford and Z. Pylyshyn (Eds.). The Robot's Dilemma Revisited: The Frame Problem in in Artificial Intelligence, Ablex, Norwood NJ, USA, 1996.
- Mar 14 Planning, the Frame Problem, and Non-Monotonic Reasoning II.
Presenter:
Required Readings: J.A. Fodor. Modules, Frames, Fridgeons, Sleeping Dogs, and The Music of the Spheres. Chapter 8 (pp. 139-149) of Z. Pylyshyn (Ed.). The Robot's Dilemma: The Frame Problem in in Artificial
Intelligence.
H.L. Dreyfus and S.E. Dreyfus. How to Stop Worrying about the Frame Problem Even though It's Computationally Insoluble. Chapter 5 (pp. 95-111) of Z. Pylyshyn (Ed.). The Robot's Dilemma: The Frame Problem in in Artificial
Intelligence.
References: Relevant sections of Russell & Norvig's AI textbook.
Z. Pylyshyn (Ed.). The Robot's Dilemma: The Frame Problem in in Artificial
Intelligence, Ablex, Norwood NJ, USA, 1987.
K.M. Ford and Z. Pylyshyn (Eds.). The Robot's Dilemma Revisited: The Frame Problem in in Artificial Intelligence, Ablex, Norwood NJ, USA, 1996.
Dreyfus in [http://leidlmair.at/doc/WhyHeideggerianAIFailed.pdf].
- Mar 16 Emergence.
Presenter:
Required Readings:
Pages 1 to 18 in M. Bedau and P. Humphreys (eds.), Emergence, MIT Press 2008.
Thomas Schelling. Sorting and Mixing: Race and Sex. Chapter 12 (pp. 235-248) in M. Bedau and P. Humphreys (eds.),
Emergence, MIT Press 2008.
- Mar 21 Emergent Consciousness.
Presenter: Lynn Sraha-Yeboah.
Required Readings:
John Searle. Chapter 3 (pp. 69-80) in M. Bedau and P. Humphreys (eds.), Emergence,
MIT Press 2008.
Daniel Dennett. Consciousness in Human and Robot Minds.
- Mar 23 Embodied AI.
Presenter: Elamathee Thanabalasingam.
Required Readings:
Embodied Cognitive Science: Basic Concepts. Chapter 4 (pp. 81-137) of R. Pfeifer and C. Scheier, Understanding Intelligence, MIT Press, 1999.
K.M. Ford and P. Hayes. On Computational Wings, Chapter 2 (pp. 25-36) of
Thinking about android epistemology, edited by Kenneth M. Ford, Clark Glymour, & Patrick J. Hayes.
References:
R.A. Brooks. Intelligence without Representation. Artifiial Intelligence, 47 (1-3), 139-159, 1991.
R.A. Brooks. Intelligence Without Reason. AI Memo 1293, MIT AI Lab, 1991.
- Mar 28 Robot Ethics.
Presenter: Daanish Maan.
Required Readings:
Noel Sharkey. The Ethical Frontiers of Robotics. Science, 322 (5909), 1800-1801, 2008.
R.C. Arkin. Ethical Robots in Warfare. Technology and Society Magazine, 28 (1), 30-33, 2009.
References:
R.C. Arkin and P. Ulam. An Ethical Adaptor: Behavioral Modification Derived from Moral Emotions. Technical Report GIT-GVU-09-04, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, 2009.
R.C. Arkin, M. Fujita, T. Takagi, and R. Hasegawa.
An Ethological and Emotional Basis for Human-Robot Interaction. Robotics and Autonomous Systems, 42(3-4), 191-201, 2003.
- Mar 30 Learning, Connectionism.
Presenter: Chanda Medeiros.
Required Readings:
Chapter 10, pp. 207-248 of J. Copeland, Artificial Intelligence. A Philosophical Introduction; you can skip sections 10.7 and 10.8.
J.L. Elman. Connectionism, Artificial Life, and Dynamical Systems. Chapter 38 (pp. 488-505) of W. Bechtel and G. Graham (eds.), A Companion to Cognitive Science.
References:
Levesque textbook, Section 11.3.
P.M. Churchland. Cognitive Activity in Artificial Neural Networks. Chapter 12 (pp. 198-216) of R. Cummins and D.D. Cummins (eds.), Minds, Brains and Computers.
- Apr 13 11:30-12:50 in CSE 2002 Innateness Controversy.
Presenter: Magdalena Lysenko.
Required Readings:
E. Spelke. Initial Knowledge: Six Suggestions. Chapter 31 (pp. 484-492) of R. Cummins and D.D. Cummins (eds.), Minds, Brains and Computers.
References:
Chapter 45 and 46 of W. Bechtel and G. Graham (eds.), A Companion to Cognitive Science.
- Apr 13 13:00-14:20 in CSE 2002 AI and the Humanities.
Presenter: Iljana Kasi.
Required Readings:
Alison Adam. Knowing Subjects: AI from Feminist Philosophy. Pages 327-344 in S. Franchi and G. Guzeldere (eds.) Mechanical Bodies, Computational Minds.
References:
Anne Foerst. Artificial Intelligence and Theology: From Mythos to Logos and Back. Pages 489-514 in S. Franchi and G. Guzeldere (eds.) Mechanical Bodies, Computational Minds.
References
On the philosphy of AI:
Andy Clark,
Being there : putting brain, body, and world together again.
MIT Press, 1997.
[On reserve in library.]
M. Bedau and P. Humphreys (eds.), Emergence, MIT Press, 2008.
[On reserve]
R. Cummins and D.D. Cummins (eds.), Minds, Brains and Computers. Blackwell, Malden, MA, USA, 2000.
[On reserve]
R. Penrose, The Emperor's New Mind.
[On reserve]
R. Penrose, Shadows of the Mind.
J.R. Newman and E. Nagel, Godel's Proof.
W. Bechtel and G. Graham (eds.), A Companion to Cognitive Science. Blackwell, Malden, MA, USA, 1998.
[On reserve]
Kenneth M. Ford, Clark Glymour, and Patrick J. Hayes (eds.),
Thinking about android epistemology.
[On reserve]
S. Franchi and G. Guzeldere (eds.),
Mechanical Bodies, Computational Minds. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, USA, 2005. [On reserve]
R. Pfeifer and C. Scheier, Understanding Intelligence. [On reserve]
Z. Pylyshyn, The Robot's Dilemma: The Frame Problem in AI.
[On reserve]
J. Copeland, Artificial Intelligence: A Philosophical Introduction, Blackwell, Oxford, UK, 1993.
[On reserve]
A Prolog textbook:
Clocksin, W.F. and Mellish, C.S.,
Programming in Prolog, (5th edition), Springer Verlag, New York, 2004.
AI textbooks:
Russell, S.J. and Norvig, P.,
Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach, 3rd edition
Prentice Hall, 2010.
Authors' web site,
Publisher's web site.
[On reserve]
Poole, D. and Mackworth, A.
Artificial Intelligence: Foundations of Computational Agents,,
Cambridge University Press, New York, 2010.
Nilsson, N.J.,
Artificial Intelligence: A New Synthesis,,
Morgan Kaufmann, San Francisco, 1998.
On logic:
The material in the Levesque textbook should be sufficient. For more
details on logc and its use in AI, see Chapters 7, 8, and 9 of the
Russell and Norvig textbook.
In PHIL 2100, the following textbook is used:
Logic: Techniques of Formal Reasoning (2nd Edition), by Kalish, Montague and Mar. Oxford University Press, 1980.
Some more mathematically advanced Logic textbooks are:
Herbert B.Enderton. A Mathematical Introduction to Logic. Academic Press, 2001.
Elliott Mendelsohn. Introduction to Mathematical Logic. Fifth edition. Chapman and Hall, 2009.
On knowledge representation:
Ronald J. Brachman and Hector J. Levesque,
Knowledge Representation and Reasoning,
Elsevier/Morgan Kaufmann 2004, ISBN 1-55860-932-6
Baral, C.
Knowledge representation, reasoning, and declarative problem solving.
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge/New York, 2003.
Genesereth, M.R. and Nilsson, N.J.
Logical foundations of artificial intelligence.
Morgan Kaufmann, Los Altos, CA, 1987.
On reasoning about action:
Reiter, R.,
Knowledge in Action: Logical Foundations for Specifying and Implementing
Dynamical Systems,
MIT Press, 2001.
York Library eCopy,
Book home page.
Using Prolog in the AP Labs
Students may use Prolog on the PCs available in the AP Labs in TEL 2003,
2027, 2032, 2114, 2116, 2118. Follow the AP Labs link for
information on accounts, hours of operation, etc.
To use Prolog, open a terminal window and enter the following command:
T:\APLAB\PHIL3750\ProLog.bat
This will load the Prolog software onto the PC and start Prolog.
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Getting Prolog
|
SWI-Prolog provides
versions of Prolog for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X. Free software licensed
under the Lesser GNU Public License. Look under downloads.
About Prolog
A starting point is the Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science
Prolog repository.