Is Airtificial Intelligence a science?
B.S. In Artificial Intelligence – Curriculum
51–60 of 95 posts
Re: B.S. In Artificial Intelligence – Curriculum
#52I'm a bit concerned that this will be too superficial and not really cover ML or the mathematical foundations well. ML and 'AI' are very multifaceted fields that require a strong foundation in mathematics. As such, the lack of information theory, signal processing, fourier analysis, abstract algebra (from a mathematical standpoint) not to mention CS courses is disheartening. This seems like a major tailored to the st…
ML and 'AI' are very multifaceted fields that require a strong foundation in mathematics.
As a mathematician with a strong foundation in all those things you mention (and more) I don't think it's really necessary. I've never found my knowledge of algebra tensors in any way useful or relevant when working with tensorflow for example. On rare occasions I might get some insight like that working with the Fourier transform of the data source might be easier than working directly with the data source, but even then all that really requires is knowing what a Fourier transform is/does and not so much about theory and analysis behind it.
A large part of ML today is very much an applied practical field. Collecting and cleaning data, selecting and normalizing features, understanding the pros and cons of the available algorithms for the problem at hand, knowing how to tune parameters, understanding the practical computational limitations of working with data that doesn't fit in RAM and so on. These are the skills most ML practitioners need.
If someone is interested and wants to contribute new knowledge to the field then they'll probably need to learn the math, but for solving most types of ML related problems that most companies have I've never needed any math taught after my first year at university. If you really understand everything taught in your first couple of linear algebra courses and in your intro statistics course you'll do fine.
Re: B.S. In Artificial Intelligence – Curriculum
#53So if I am reading this correctly 25% of classes in this curriculum is humanity/arts related. How did we get here? Sheldon Cooper will be very unhappy :).
Re: B.S. In Artificial Intelligence – Curriculum
#54Ok, is it me? I first though it was a joke (Bull Shit in A.I.), looks like it's not, it is a degree? Don't they mean B.Sc. in A.I. then? What does B.S. stand for? (other than Bull Shit of course.)
I thought about asking the same question, but disregarded it as - meh - it's just me anyway...
Re: B.S. In Artificial Intelligence – Curriculum
#55Yay for an ethics component! Albeit, I have a strong feeling it'll be treated as a (for lack of a better term) BS class since the audience this caters to isn't necessarily those interested in academia but are more likely to do this track b/c it'll be more beneficial for jobs.
I miss they don’t have Ethical Mars Colonization class in astronomy courses. Why are we not preparing students for something that we expect to happen at least 50 years down the line?
Re: B.S. In Artificial Intelligence – Curriculum
#56Why is Freshman Immigration Course under Computer Science?
Re: B.S. In Artificial Intelligence – Curriculum
#57Is Airtificial Intelligence a science?
It is said that "if a discipline has science in the name it usually isn't", so AI at least passes that post. :)
AI is a generic terms covering a whole spectrum of things, from 'model based philosophy' to 'advanced engineering'.
You have practitioners coming to it because they want to experimentally probe computational models to gain insights into complex systems in biology/sociology/psychology etc.
Then you have a whole different batch that flocks to it because they want to engineer better practical algorithms for heuristic search, adaptive control systems, high dimensional optimization etc
In most universities it sprang from and is embedded in the Computer Science department, which in turn was often birthed in the science&mathematics faculty (I have heard but could not verify that this was not always the case and that in some places CS was part of the theology faculty because they happened to have the first electronic computer).
Personally, being of the former type (AI for understanding systems), I'd say it fits more in the science department than computer science ever did, but the latter form (AI as advanced algorithms in CS) would certainly fit better in the engineering faculty together with the bulk of computer 'science'.
Re: B.S. In Artificial Intelligence – Curriculum
#58When I did my, what would now be called Masters in the EU as well, in AI, things were a bit different, but not so different as to be unrecognizable.
The Bachelor part was a 90% standard Computer science bachelor. This had a far heavier load of especially mathematics, a bit more CS and about the same Science and Engineering parts as the CMU diagram, and an 'Economy' class.
The AI was mostly reserved to the Masters level. We also had one 'ethics' class in the masters, and some, but far, far less emphasis on Humanities and Arts (only the Cognitive Science class)
Re: B.S. In Artificial Intelligence – Curriculum
#59Not sure what the point of this discussion is, there have been BSc in AI at various universities for years (at least 20), whats the debate?
Re: B.S. In Artificial Intelligence – Curriculum
#60Ok, is it me? I first though it was a joke (Bull Shit in A.I.), looks like it's not, it is a degree? Don't they mean B.Sc. in A.I. then? What does B.S. stand for? (other than Bull Shit of course.)
“Bachelor of Science”; common abbreviations include B.S., B.Sc., Sc.B. and (apparently) S.B. Different schools use different abbreviations; this is in part regional, but I've seen all of the first three in U.S. schools.
MIT and, I believe, Harvard both offer S.B. degrees. I assume others do as well. B.S. is probably the standard though. At some point, I was advised to list an S.B. on my resume even though my actual degree used a different abbreviation.