Gen Ed 1201 | Newly approved
How is our understanding of the brain fundamentally changing with breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, and how can we use brain science to advance AI?
The brain is among the most powerful and complex systems known, with neural network structure that enables intricate mental experiences and rich behaviors. Recent breakthroughs in artificial intelligence have led to computational systems with increasingly complex capacities, which provocatively utilize artificial neural networks and principles inspired from biology. With surprising translational breakthroughs between these fields, a new research area is emerging at this interdisciplinary intersection called “NeuroAI.” The premise and promise of this field is that insights from deep neural network models can help us understand the brain, and in reciprocally, insights from brain and cognitive science can help improve artificial intelligent systems. In this course you will learn the relevant foundational knowledge in both cognitive neuroscience and machine learning underlying these synergies, and gain an understanding of the major scientific advances and active frontiers. Coding-based problem sets, leveraging generative AI capacities, will give you hands-on experience of basic NeuroAI research. By illuminating the beautiful complexity of brains and simple powerful ideas of AI, this course aims to help you gain a deep understanding of the connections between natural and artificially intelligent systems, for the next wave of advance in this interdisciplinary frontier.