Advanced Topics in Artificial Intelligence

Identifier
COMS 6720
Professor(s)

Last Updated: Spring 2025

  1. Credits and contact hours: 3 credits
  2. Textbook, title, author, and year: None required
  3. Other supplemental materials: Papers, guest lectures, online talks, and the bok "A Brief History of Intelligence by Max Bennett

Specific course information

  1. Brief description of the content of the course: We will read, learn, ponder, and discuss the topics of artificial intelligence. We will reflect on the fundamental concepts related to intelligence and teach the state-of-the-art, representative artificial intelligence algorithms, techniques, and tools. We will discuss the research methods that are useful for this fast evolving field and share our thoughts about the future of artificial intelligence and how our work and life will be reshaped.
  2. Required, elective, or selected elective? Selected elective

Course Objectives

  1. Develop a deeper understanding on intelligence and artificial intelligence
  2. Gain an overview of the state-of-the-art artificial intelligence research
  3. Improve your teaching and artificial thinking skills in artificial intelligence
  4. Establish a foundation of future artificial intelligence research 

Brief list of topics to be covered

  • Fundamental thinking about intelligence:
    • What is intelligence?
    • What are intelligent behaviors?
    • What are the cognitive functions that enable intelligent behaviors?
    • What is a thought?
    • Can thoughts exist without languages?
    • What is a world model?
  • The inspirations of natural intelligence for artificial intelligence
  • Reasoning (including planning)
  • Perception and Representation Learning
  • Knowledge: Representation and Retrieval
  • Agents
  • Collective Intelligence and Social Interactions
  • Memory and Retrieval
  • LLM alignment
  • Intelligence in Games
  • Future of Artificial Intelligence