History and Foundations of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

In this course, students will understand the historical evolution of AI, from ancient myths about thinking machines to the formal emergence of the discipline at the Dartmouth Conference (1956). Early advances are covered, such as the Perceptron, the Lisp language, and the ELIZA chatbot, as well as the periods known as the "AI Winters," marked by technological limitations and funding cuts, and the rebirth of AI with expert systems.

The module also explores the Deep Learning era and the integration of AI into everyday life, including virtual assistants, recommendation algorithms, AlphaGo, and Generative AI (ChatGPT, Midjourney, and DALL-E). Students will study the emerging ethical debates around algorithmic biases, misinformation, privacy, and impacts on the job market, understanding the need for social responsibility and appropriate regulation.

Finally, the technical foundations of AI are presented, including pattern recognition, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, and the distinction between Narrow AI, General AI (AGI), and Superintelligence. The module reinforces that, despite technological advances, society's ethical and regulated choices will determine whether AI positively transforms industries and human work in the future.