Artificial and Natural Intelligence 🧠🤖

What does it mean for a machine to be intelligent, how does current artificial intelligence compare with animal intelligence, and should we be worried?

Instructor: Professor Venkatesh Murthy (vnmurthy@fas.harvard.edu)
Head TF: Kumaresh Krishnan (kumaresh_krishnan@g.harvard.edu)
Lecture: M/W 3-4:15PM | Location: Science Center Hall C
Section times: Tentative times shown in schedule tab (Submit sectioning preferences on my.harvard after enrolling!)

Quick Links

PDF version of the course schedule and syllabus.
Course Preview Zoom Recording, where Prof. Murthy gives an overview of the course (Recorded for Spring 2022).
Final paper guidelines

Week 1 - Introduction

Jan 23

LEC 1 What is Intelligence? 🎥: Slides

Readings 📖

Jan 25

LEC 2 With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility 🎥: Slides

Readings 📖

Ethics_of_brain

Week 2 - The Building Blocks of Biological and Artificial Intelligence

Jan 30

LEC 3 The Building Blocks of the Brain 🎥: Slides

Readings 📖

Intro_to_neurons

Feb 1

LEC 4 Guest Lecturer 🎥

PSET 1 handed out Covers lectures 1-4: PSet1 pdf / PSet1 latex

Section: Section begins this week!

Week 3 - The Building Blocks of Biological and Artificial Intelligence (Cont'd)

Feb 6

LEC 5 The Architecture of the Brain - I 🎥: Slides

Readings 📖

Quick summary of neural circuits

Neurons & Circuits draft chapter

Feb 8

LEC 6 The Architecture of the Brain - II 🎥: Slides

Readings 📖

Feb 10

PSET 1 DUE @ 11:59: PSet 1 Key

Section

Week 4 - The Building Blocks of Biological and Artificial Intelligence (Cont'd)

Feb 13

LEC 7 The Building Blocks of Neural Networks 🎥: Slides

Readings 📖

Blog post Intro to Neural Nets

Intro to NNs - Chap 1

Feb 15

LEC 8 How Networks Learn 🎥: Slides

Readings 📖

Deep learning book Intro

Backprop_explanation

Annotation for AI

PSET 2 handed out Covers lectures 5-8: PSet2 (pdf) / LaTeX

Section

Week 5 - Learning to Represent

Feb 20

No Class – President’s Day

Feb 22

LEC 9 Primary Visual Cortex and Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) 🎥: Slides

Readings 📖

Primer_DeepLearning_Networks

LeCun_NeuralComp - advanced reading!

Feb 24

PSET 2 DUE @ 11:59PM: Submit PSet 2

Section

Week 6 - Learning Complex Representations

Feb 27

LEC 10 Dimensionality Reduction and Invariant Representations 🎥: Slides

Readings 📖

Dimension_Reduction_Primer

Mar 1

LEC 11 Guest Lecturer (Prof. Nancy Kanwisher) 🎥

Readings 📖

Section

Week 7 - Representation To Action

Mar 6

LEC 12 Moving in the world 🎥: Slides

Readings 📖

Hierarchical motor control

Internal Models

Mar 8

In class mid term exam: Midterm Key

Section

Spring Break - Mar 11 to Mar 19

Week 8 - Learning In The Brain

Mar 20

LEC 13 Types of Learning 🎥: Slides

Readings 📖

Memories_brief_Intro

Learning_and_Memory_brief_Intro

Mar 22

LEC 14 Guest Lecturer - Nao Uchida (Reinforcement Learning) 🎥

Readings 📖

Section:

Week 9 - Language and Learning

Mar 27

LEC 15 Natural Language 🎥: Slides

Readings 📖

Mar 29

LEC 16 Language and Machines 🎥: Slides

Readings 📖

PSET 3 handed out Covers lectures 13-16: PSET 3

Section:

Week 9 - Applications

Apr 3

LEC 17 Learning To Play Complex Games 🎥: Slides

Readings 📖

Apr 5

LEC 18 Learning How To Drive A Car 🎥: Slides

Apr 7

PSET 3 DUE @ 11:59PM

Section

Week 10 - What Does The Black Box Do?

Apr 10

LEC 19 Mind-Reading 🎥: Slides

Readings 📖

Apr 12

LEC 20 Interpreting Machines 🎥: Slides

Readings 📖

PSET 4 handed out Covers lectures 16-20

Section

Week 12 - Biases and Reality

Apr 17

LEC 21 Human & Algorithmic Biases 🎥: Slides

Readings 📖

Apr 19

LEC 22 Dreams in Brains and Machines 🎥: Slides

Readings 📖

Apr 21: PSET 4 DUE @ 11:59PM

Section

Week 13 - Towards General AI & What is Missing?

Apr 24: LEC 23 Guest Lecturer 🎥; Readings 📖

Apr 26: Course Summary & Feedback 🎥; FEEDBACK End-of-year course feedback
May 8: FINAL PAPER DUE @ 11:59pm

Section