AI and technological breakthroughs; AI from a system perspective: software, hardware, data
Modern Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be seen as a series of advances in the fields of computer science, applied mathematics and statistics; however, as AI is increasingly embedded into software and products and is enabled by the availability of data and complex hardware technologies, it becomes the engine of profound changes in the way our societies and economies work. As with previous technological breakthroughs, the societal transformations they produce can be identified, unpacked, and put in context.
This course will provide you with the tools to do that. The contents are organized as follows. Lecture 1 will introduce AI and its enabling technology and compare it with received theories of radical technological change. Lectures 2, 3, and 4 will guide you through the details of the techniques and models that are the backbone of AI solutions. Combining explanations and guided hands-on tasks, you will dissect how neural networks work and learn the foundations of natural language processing and generative AI. You will also discuss their application to prediction and decision-making. Finally, lectures 5 and 6 will returns to a “bird’s-eye view” to introduce the structure of the AI industry, its business model, and what AI adoption implies in terms of re-organisation of labor and production. We will also explore what are the societal costs we are bearing while developing such transformational innovation — in terms of new inequalities, risks for democracy, and environmental toll.
Cover image: IceMing & Digit / https://betterimagesofai.org / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
AI and technological breakthroughs; AI from a system perspective: software, hardware, data
Foundations: AI concepts, algorithms, ML in decision-making
Machine learning in economics & business: prediction, optimization, market applications
Towards generative AI in economics: innovation, productivity, and transformative dynamics
AI and its impact on the economy, business models, industrial dynamics, and employment
AI harms and environmental toll; AI policy and geopolitics