CS 534

(AI)
Lecture 1, Introduction
 Me
• Interested in educational software
• Particularly educational data mining
– Taking large data sets and applying computational
approaches better understand how people learn
–
• Topics
– Machine learning, data mining, Bayesian
networks, causal inference, empirical
evaluation
–
 Teaching
(tend to be experimental)
• Graphical Models for Reasoning under
Uncertainty (Bayes nets, inferring
causality)
• Empirical Methods for Human-Centered
Computing (good research questions,
experimental design, data analysis)
•
• GPS: Educate the World (undergrad)
•
 Where am I?
• Fuller 138
•
• KNOCK (really)
– Door is often closed since I’m easily
distracted by pointless distractions
– (students are neither)
–
 Office hours
• Before class on Tuesday
• After class on Thursday
•
• Or email
•
• Or stop by
 Administrivia
• Course web page up before next class
– Post lecture notes
–
• Book? Russell and Norvig
– The standard, and not bad
• Which version of the book?
– We’re using third edition
– Lots of copies of second edition floating
around cheaply (should work fine)
 Course is full
• If you want to enroll…(and you fit in the
room)
– bring me override form and I’ll sign
–
–
–

 Course goals
• Provide overview of AI
– Very few of you will be active researchers
on any of the topics covered
• But will hopefully be using the techniques
–  My goal is to have intelligent consumers
rather than tool producers
•
• Somewhat more modern topics than
catalog description
•
 Look at readings carefully
• Often skip parts of chapters
– (goal is to give flavor)
–
• Let me know if there is something you
really want covered (a few TBDs)
 Taught cognitive psychology
• Textbook claimed cramming was
– A Bad Thing
•
– Last ditch effort by unmotivated students
•
– Doesn’t work
–
• [ok, so why do most students do it?]
 How well you know it

Time
How well you know it
Time
Cramming vs. spaced practice
 How well you know it

Time
How well you know it
Time
So why cram?
 How well you know it

Time
How well you know it
Exams!

Time
 Mismatch of interests
• Student’s best move is to cram
• Instructor would rather students retain
knowledge
•
• (I know who wins this one)
 Mismatch of interests
• Student’s best move is to cram
• Instructor would rather students retain
knowledge
•
• Better way to resolve?
– Mechanism design!
 Grading
• Develop a scheme where we both get
what we want
Grading: classly quizzes (50%)
• One question on assigned reading
• One question from prior lecture
•
• Drop lowest 4 quiz scores (out of ~24)
•
• No midterm or final exam
–
 Why I like classly quizzes
• If something happens, not a big deal
– Religious holiday, family emergency, etc.
– That’s why I drop lowest 4 scores
–
• Immediate feedback
– You get quizzes back the next class
– I know where people are having problems
 Grading: final project (30%)
• Due at the end of the semester
• Work individually or in groups (up to 4)
•
• You propose something to work on
• Do it
• Tell us about it
– In-class presentation
– Written report
–
 Final projects
• Will give more info later (don’t worry—yet)
•
• Suggest you skim topics covered later in
the semester (more interesting stuff)
•
• You are responsible for topic, group,
approach, etc.
– Of course I’m happy to give advice
Grading: in-class projects (20%)
• Students wanted more “hands on” practice
•
• Will have small in-class group projects
– ~10 to 15 minutes
– Assumes you have already done the
readings!
 Design goals
• I don’t want to collect (and lose) pieces of
paper
•
• Would like to go publicly go through one or
two of your solutions during class
– You get to see different approaches
• (and some misconceptions)
 How to do?
• How many of you can bring laptops each
class?
 Crazy idea
• Work on solution as a group
– Same group throughout semester
•
• Google docs
– Has text editor and drawing tool
– Works on most platforms
–
• Submit as a google doc to me
– Provides submission for me to evaluate
– Can go through a couple during lecture
 Next class
• Will figure out which groups
– (First class things are in flux)
–
• Will do a technology test—slowly
•
–
 How to do well in this class
• “90% of success is showing up” (and
paying attention) – Woody Allen
•
• Quizzes: do the readings, show up, and
pay attention in lectures
– There is nothing to “cram” for, so cannot
fall behind
• Have to spread out studying
– Showing up late for class isn’t good
–
 How to do well in this class
• Final project: pick something you like
– AI topic or application area
– (“genetic algorithms” vs. “computer-
generated music”)
–
• Don’t start at the last minute!
•
• I care more about understanding than
complexity
•
Chapter 1: beginnings of AI and
neighboring fields
• Can a computer be intelligent?
– A loaded question
–
• Who decides what is intelligent?
– Whatever a computer can do will probably
not be considered intelligent
 Turing test
• Changes problem around
– Imagine having two chat sessions with
entities A and B
– Goal: ask questions to determine which is
the computer
• What can you ask? Anything
– “Are you the computer?”
– “Yes ;-)”
–
• Not a bad start!
 Two nice properties
•
• Defines intelligence in terms of what
rather than how
•
• Includes reasoning and knowledge
•
 Position of text (and instructor)
• We care more about how system act than
how they reason
– If a system (human, computer, insect, etc.)
acts rationally, that’s good enough
•
 Position of text (and instructor)
• We care more about how system act than
how they reason
– If a system (human, computer, insect, etc.)
acts rationally, that’s good enough
–
• If you think that’s too low of a bar, please
prove to me that you are rational
– We tend to be polite and assume other
humans are rational and intelligent
•
 But don’t we care about how?
The human brain
• A fine place to look for inspiration
– Analogy of Wright brothers and birds
– Good start
– But misguided to carry too far
–
• Cognitive Science and Cognitive
Psychology
– Neighboring fields that focus on emulating
the brain (not our goal!)
A lot of fields have impact on AI
• Computer Engineering
– Moore’s law
• Psychology
– rational behavior
• Biology
– Neural, bioinformatics,
• Economics
– Game theory and rational behavior
• Mathematics
– Logic, probabilitity
•
 Accomplishments of AI
• Game playing
– Deep Blue beat Garry Kasparov
– TD-gammon (probably) best at
backgammon
• Autonomous driving
– 98% of time across US (Pittsburgh  San
Diego)
– DARPA Grand Challenge (check out
Sebastian Thrun’s AAAI invited talk)
•
 Where next?
• “Big data” is changing a lot of fields
– Biology
– Education
– Supply chain management
– Translation
–
• Still learning how to use such data