What is intelligence?
Lectures
Suggestive Readings
- Alan Turing, “Computing Machinery and Intelligence” (1950)
- John Searle, “Minds, Brains, and Programs” (1980)
- McCarthy, Minsky, Rochester, and Shannon, “A Proposal for the Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence” (1955)
- Joseph Weizenbaum, “ELIZA—A Computer Program for the Study of Natural Language Communication Between Man and Machine” (1966)
- Shane Legg and Marcus Hutter, “A Collection of Definitions of Intelligence”
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: “The Turing Test”
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: “The Chinese Room Argument”
- V&A: “A History of Artificial Intelligence in 10 Objects”
Video Resources
- How Far is Too Far? | The Age of A.I. (Youtube Originals, 2020)
- Can artificial intelligence pass the Turing Test? (ABC News, 2023)
- Scientists still don’t know the answer to this infamous question - Charles Wallace & Dan Kwartler (Ted Ed, 2026)
Assignment 1
Submit Assignment
For this first assignment, choose one subject that could be understood, described, or perceived as demonstrating some form of “intelligence.” Your subject might be a historical artifact, technical system, computational model, game, method of prediction, classification system, conversational script, organism, environmental process, social behavior, or contemporary AI system. The goal is not to prove that your subject is intelligent. Instead, begin by asking: what makes someone describe this system as intelligent, and what assumptions are built into that description?
Spend the week researching how your chosen subject operates. Rather than focusing only on what it is or what it represents, pay attention to what it does. What does it sense, receive, remember, compare, classify, predict, repeat, or respond to? What kinds of rules, conditions, patterns, inputs, outputs, or feedback loops allow it to function? Collect at least five research artifacts that help you understand the system. These may include images, diagrams, videos, manuals, texts, screenshots, technical documents, advertisements, oral histories, or other relevant materials.
From your research, create a preliminary map of the system using a simple structure such as Input → Process / Rule → Output. The diagram does not need to be polished; boxes, arrows, drawings, notes, screenshots, or other forms of representation are welcome. Accompany the map with at least five observations about how the system behaves and one question that you are still unsure about. For example: Where does the intelligence of this system actually reside? What happens when its rules encounter something unexpected? Is prediction a form of intelligence if the system does not understand what it predicts?
Bring your research, observations, and system map to class next week for a short informal presentation.