This module introduces artificial intelligence by showing how today’s generative AI tools fit into a much larger AI landscape.
You’ll explore key ideas and technologies—such as machine learning, neural networks, deep learning, and large language models—to understand what AI is, how it works at a conceptual level, and where it shows up in everyday life.
Along the way, the module lays the groundwork for thinking critically about the social, ethical, and cultural questions AI raises, helping you move beyond hype toward informed understanding.
This module places today’s excitement around generative AI in historical perspective by exploring how AI has developed through cycles of optimism and disappointment—often described as “AI summers” and “AI winters.”
Using a selective timeline of key moments in AI history, the module helps you see how funding, hype, and power have shaped what gets built and who gets to decide.
