AI: The End of Humanity or the Beginning of a Better Future? (In-person at TBE)

AI: The End of Humanity or the Beginning of a Better Future? (In-person at TBE)

Class | CLASS FULL - Email info@lifelonglearningcollaborative.org to be added to the waitlist.

3/19/2024-5/21/2024

10:00 AM-12:00 PM on Tue

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$55.00

What’s AI (Artificial Intelligence) and what will it mean for us humans? Accurate disease diagnostics in a nanosecond, safe autonomous vehicles, robot crop harvesters, super-smart administrative assistants, personal robot housemaids, etc. Or: Deep fake videos disrupting election campaigns; robots taking over the battlefield or the factory; bots with minds that their creators don’t understand or control?

As AI permeates our lives, we had better understand its impacts on individuals, communities, and global society. We will focus on the ethical, social, legal, business, and economic implications of AI technologies. We will navigate beyond alarming headlines to gain a nuanced view of the current and future uses, development, and regulation of AI systems.

Format: A mix of discussion and presentations, plus sharing our responses to applications (apps) powered by AI. Two types of presentations:

1) Overviews of areas that will be transformed by AI, such as medicine, military, education, law enforcement, personal privacy

2) Intros and how-to’s for currently available AI-powered apps such as ChatGPT, Bing, Bard, Dall-E, Duolingo. We will use and discuss the featured apps. This is a hybrid class.

Resources/Expenses: There are no anticipated resources or expenses.

(Course description co-authored and edited by ChatGPT.)

Bob Kemp, a retired corporate attorney, has tracked recent AI developments. He co-coordinated Huckleberry Finn, Frankenstein, and other popular LLC courses.

Linda Shamoon taught courses on writing in electrotonic environments at URI. She has co-coordinated over 20 courses, including numerous iterations of the popular Concerts and Conversations course, and currently heads the LLC Technology Committee. Since starting in LLC’s iPhonography class, Linda is also an enthusiastic cell phone photographer and photo editor.

Karen Stein is a retired URI professor. She taught American literature and Women’s Studies. This is her second time coordinating a class for LLC.