ESP Biography

You might have heard the often-referenced question of whether a self-driving car should prioritize passengers or pedestrians, but there's so much more to talk about in the ethics of AI. Should you release a model with large potential for misuse? When should we start worrying about self-preserving algorithms which act on the world? How do we determine responsibility when an algorithm causes social damage? What role should legislation play in answering these questions? We'll talk about these questions and many more.

Computers are generating art which people find value in and can't differentiate from that made by humans. Understand recent progress in art generation including music, literature, visual art and see them in action. Discuss the broader implications of these developments on art and society.

Religions have historically played important roles in shaping cultures. We'll talk about how this has had differentiating effects on literature, music, and visual art, and moreover, how these media have shaped religious perceptions.

Computers are increasingly able to create art that most people, and sometimes even experts, cannot differentiate from that made by people. Understand the premises underlying art generation including music, literature, visual art and see them in action. We will focus on cutting-edge developments in an accessible way, mainly drawing from the preceding months and weeks.

Computers are increasingly able to create art that most people, and sometimes even experts, cannot differentiate from that made by people. Understand the premises underlying art generation including music, literature, visual art and see them in action. We will focus on cutting-edge developments in an accessible way, mainly drawing from the preceding months and weeks.

Discuss interesting problems in fields from psycholinguistics to computational linguistics that are considered unsolved. How is linguistic intuition formed? What is the best way to translate words which have no direct analog in another language? Are there patterns in the ways a standard dialect connects to other dialects? How did language come about in the first place?

The way in which computers interact with human languages is rapidly developing. Within the past few years, a variety of new techniques have emerged each with their own limitations and benefits for everything from understanding emotion in text to building maps of a language relating words.

Quantum computation is one of the most interesting, powerful, and misunderstood developing technological fields. This class approaches the math and physics of QC, going over the nature of a qubit and entanglement, the mathematics and representations of quantum circuits and gates, "teleporation," and the implementation and implications of algorithms including Shor's factoring algorithm

Computers are increasingly able to create art that most people, and sometimes even experts, cannot differentiate from that made by people. Understand the premises underlying art generation including music, literature, visual art and see them in action

Irony is ever-present in art including literature, film, music, dance, from Shakespeare to Deadpool. Irony is closely tied to many movements and tools and signifies a specific kind of self-expression, often commenting on the expectations of a medium or of society as a whole. The class will seek to approach questions ranging from whether an artwork can be entirely ironic to the value of irony, to how irony is used and to what its impact is. (Irony: "...an event that seems deliberately contrary to what one expects and is often amusing as a result", Oxford Dict.)

Although photography has existed in some form for centuries, the role of photography at a sub-hobbyist level has changed substantially over that span including its boom in the past several years. Look at the purposes and artistic value of these photographs and discuss the implications of the evolution of its constraints as a medium.