IV130 Pros and Cons of Intelligent Systems

Faculty of Informatics
Spring 2025
Extent and Intensity
2/0/0. 2 credit(s) (plus extra credits for completion). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
In-person direct teaching
Teacher(s)
prof. RNDr. Jiří Zlatuška, CSc. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
prof. RNDr. Jiří Zlatuška, CSc.
Supplier department: Faculty of Informatics
Prerequisites
No formal prerequisities.
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
It is a course with a motivational-methodological-paradigmatic mission to open students' thinking towards the coming era of massive use of artificial intelligence (AI) in all aspects. It is about the link between intelligence in the general sense and the design of general-purpose information processing machines (computers) with implications concerning the replacement of human cognitive activities by intelligently acting machines both in the position of cooperating with humans and as their adversaries, including implications for the cybersecurity of systems deployed so far (in both mentioned positions), but secure systems building on AI and avoiding the conflict between the goals pursued by the machine and the interests corresponding to humans. This includes fundamental ethical issues, including implications for security policies (from local to geopolitical). It broadens the technical-operational perspective of the computer-security expert, in the ability to perceive a forward-looking view and be aware of the threats and opportunities that come with AI in the world of cybersecurity. The ambition of the course is not necessarily to teach the techniques directly used, but rather to provide a mental preparation for a world where opportunities are yet to be born, to see these techniques in the context of their evolution, status, potential, and with them, the definition of the role of AI with the broad implications that will come from these techniques, or techniques that will complement/overlay them..
Learning outcomes
Upon successful completion, the student will: - Know and be able to describe basic concepts such as cognitive processes, memory functioning, mental and machine processes in decision making, the role of emotions - Know and understand the principles of Bayesian probability, Markov processes - Able to identify and describe the main influences of AI on cybersecurity threats and in turn on protection methods - Can apply techniques using Bayesian networks to describe and solve simple problems relevant to cybersecurity - Be able to describe and explain the concepts of utility, ethical aspects of AI - Be able to describe the main cybersecurity aspects of AI-based systems - To be familiar with the main problems of the relationship between future "real" (strong) AI and humans - Know the framework of legal regulations today and expected future regulating the field of AI - Be able to describe the known grand challenges associated with AI
Syllabus
  • - Intelligence in people and machines, intelligence, memory, computation, learning - Possibilities and limits of machines, biology and evolution - Agents, environment, intentions, making and implementing plans - Environmental certainty, uncertainty, probability, game theory - Inference, logical systems, probabilistic languages, Bayesian networks - Intelligent systems development, learning methods, assisted learning, feedback systems, deep learning, explanation-based learning - The prospect of superintelligence, implications, fiction or danger - AI risks, breakthroughs, bugs vs. robust systems, surveillance, mental safety, autonomous weapons, human labor substitution, economic impacts - Impacts of superintelligent AI, the Gorilla problem and the King Midas problem, intelligence explosion, control problem - Coexistence of intelligent systems and humans, principle of beneficial machines, friendly AI - Mathematical principles of beneficial machine formulation, assistive games, machine shutdown problem - Preferences and values, their uncertainty, detection and adaptation, psychology and technology - Implications for future developments, big data policies, privacy, secure development of intelligent applications
Literature
  • Max Tegmark, Život 3.0, Člověkem v éře umělé inteligence. Argo/Dokořán, 2020.
  • RUSSELL, Stuart J. and Peter NORVIG. Artificial intelligence : a modern approach. Edited by Ming-Wei Chang - Jacob Devlin - Anca Dragan - David Forsyth - Ian Good. Fourth edition, global editi. Harlow: Pearson, 2022, 1166 stran. ISBN 9781292401133. info
  • RUSSELL, Stuart J. Jako člověk : umělá inteligence a problém jejího ovládání. Translated by Jiří Zlatuška. První vydání v českém j. Praha: Argo, 2021, 271 stran. ISBN 9788025736418. info
  • RUSSELL, Stuart J. Human compatible : artificial intelligence and the problem of control. [Spojené státy americké]: Viking, 2019, xii, 336. ISBN 9780525558613. info
  • TEGMARK, Max. Life 3.0 : being human in the age of artificial intelligence. First edition. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2017, xii, 364. ISBN 9781101946596. info
  • BOSTROM, Nick. Superinteligence : až budou stroje chytřejší než lidé. Translated by Jan Petříček. V českém jazyce vydání p. Praha: Prostor, 2017, 509 stran. ISBN 9788072603534. info
  • BOSTROM, Nick. Superintelligence : paths, dangers, strategies. First published in paperback. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016, xvi, 415. ISBN 9780198739838. info
  • BRYNJOLFSSON, Erik and Andrew MCAFEE. Druhý věk strojů : práce, pokrok a prosperita v éře špičkových technologií. Vydání první. Brno: Jan Melvil, 2015, 295 stran. ISBN 9788087270714. info
  • BRYNJOLFSSON, Erik and Andrew MCAFEE. The second machine age : work, progress, and prosperity in a time of brilliant technologies. 1st ed. London: W.W. Norton & Company, 2014, 306 s. ISBN 9780393239355. info
Teaching methods
The course is taught weekly in the form of lectures.
Assessment methods
Students are assessed for continuous independent work on essays on assigned topics.
Language of instruction
Czech
The course is also listed under the following terms Spring 2022, Spring 2023, Spring 2024.
  • Enrolment Statistics (recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/fi/spring2025/IV130