Intelligence: Cognitive Science hasn’t fully defined it and AI hasn’t replicated it

In the last third of the semester, students circled back to where we began and took an even deeper dive into the issues of cognitive science as they relate to the progress of AI, this time shifting our focus from cognition to computer science. Students’ gained a more nuanced awareness of how AI programs operate, and just how different they are from human neurological processes, human consciousness, and human intelligence. Even though AI work is far from human-like and indeed may never even get there, that doesn’t mean that AI work is futile. Much to the contrary, just so long as we keep an eye towards ethics and continue taking measures to protect against bias, the future of humanity will be brighter for the contributions made by our AI companions.