Background

In the fall of 2023, I'm teaching a course called "Philosophy and The Challenge of the Future"^[1] which is focused on AI risk and safety. I designed the syllabus keeping in mind that my students:

will have no prior exposure to what AI is or how it works
will not necessarily have a strong philosophy background (the course is offered by the Philosophy department, but is open to everyone)
will not necessarily be familiar with Effective Altruism at all

Goals

My approach combines three perspectives: 1) philosophy, 2) AI safety, and 3) Science, Technology, Society (STS); this combination reflects my training in these fields and attempts to create an alternative introduction to AI safety (that doesn't just copy the AISF curriculum). That said, I plan to recommend the AISF course towards the end of the semester; since my students are majoring in all sorts of different things, from CS to psychology, it'd be great if some of them considered AI safety research as their career path.

Course Overview

INTRO TO AI

Week 1 (8/28-9/1): The foundations of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Required Readings:

Artificial Intelligence, A Modern Approach, pp. 1-27, Russell & Norvig.
Superintelligence, pp. 1-16, Bostrom.

Week 2 (9/5-8): AI, Machine Learning (ML), and Deep Learning (DL)

Required Readings:

You Look Like a Thing and I Love You, Chapters 1, 2, and 3, Shane.
But what is a neural network? (video)
ML Glossary (optional but helpful for terminological references)

Week 3 (9/11-16): What can current AI models do?

Required Readings:

Artificial Intelligence, A Modern Approach, pp. 27-34, Russell & Norvig.
ChatGPT Explained (video)
What is Stable Diffusion? (video)

AI AND THE FUTURE OF HUMANITY

Week 4 (9/18-22): What are the stakes?

Required Readings:

The Precipice, pp. 15-21, Ord.
Existential risk and human extinction: An intellectual history, Moynihan.
Everything might change forever this century (video)

Week 5 (9/25-29): What are the risks?

Required Readings:

Taxonomy of Risks posed by Language Models, Weidinger et al.
Human Compatible, pp. 140-152, Russell.
Loss of Control: “Normal Accidents and AI Systems”, Chan.

Week 6 (10/2-6): From Intelligence to Superintelligence

Required Readings:

A Collection of Definitions of Intell

...

AI Safety Field-Building