In this unit, we’ll consider what sort of things AIs in general and LLMs in particular are.
WEEK 1
We have 3 priorities this week: 1. Get your website up and running. 2. Start to understand what LLMs do/are 3. Begin to understand some basics about what consciousness and mind are.
For the first priority. I will have a visit from the DKC in class at some point. In the mean time: check out their material on building a site: Getting Started with Website Building – Digital Knowledge Center
Priority 2:
To start, read through this 4 part explainer on LLMs written by Carlos Iván Lozano. It’s oriented toward theatre people, so it is fairly non-technical. It’s on Medium, so you might need to login in some way after reading one or two of them:
Reading for Wednesday, August 27th: Part I ., Part II. , Part III., Part IV.
In addition, we’ll be using playlab.ai this term. So, you’ll want to join our course workspace. That link is only available on our canvas site since I don’t want that on the open web.
We’ll also want to get a basic understanding of how consciousness and mind are understood (or not understood). To do so, let’s read a couple of things:
For Wednesday, also start: Excerpt from Daniel Dennett, Kinds of Minds, pp. 1-11, 19-40.
Here is the first blog prompt. Write up your reply in about 250 words or so (a little more is fine). Post it on your website once it is up. But, try to get it up by Monday, Sept. 1st at the latest, even though we don’t have class.
For Friday, August 29th:
CHANGE OF PLANS. I was able to book Shannon Hauser from the DKC to come in on Friday to help us get our websites up and running. So, be sure to bring your computer to class on Friday. This will be hands on. Before class be sure to review the material on Getting started with website building from the DKC. You’ll choose between Sites @ UMW and Domain of One’s own.
WEEK 2
Then, since we don’t have class on Monday because of Labor Day, let’s do the following for Wednesday, Sept. 3rd:
- Make sure you have your website up and first blog post posted. Check out the Student Websites page to see if your blog appears. If not, and you have something posted on your site, I probably need to manually tweak how the RSS aggregator looks for your blog’s RSS feed. Let me know if you have something posted and nothing appears on the RSS feed. Send me a link to your post if so.
- Put your website url here so I can syndicate it.
- Finish the Dennett reading from Wednesday and also read:
- Read Chapter 4, “From White Noise to Consciousness” from Peter Godfrey-Smith’s Other Minds, which is actually a book on Octopuses.
For Friday, Sept. 5th:
Read, Susan Schneider, Ch. 2 from Artificial You, “The Problem of AI Consciousness”
Read some of your colleagues’ blogs and think about what you might say about one or two of them.
WEEK 3
For Monday, Sept. 8th. Let’s continue our discussion of Schneider’s Artificial You and Godfrey-Smith’s Other Minds.
In addition for Monday, go to the Student Websites page and write up one reply to one of your colleague’s posts. Make it is substantial reply where you engage with one idea/example/concept in depth. All of you who get replies, make sure that you approve the comments so they appear on your sites.
For Wednesday, Sept. 10th Read through David Chalmers’ “Could an LLM be Conscious?” and/or watch/listen to this talk by Chalmers on some of the same issues.
For Friday, Sept. 12th: Now that you’ve read/watched/listened to a talk about LLMs and consciousness experiment with two models in playlab.ai. I have set up an app there for you to get started. It uses Claude 4 Opus. You’ll need the login you created at the beginning of the course. You don’t have to use that app, but you might. Do interact with 2 different models, but at least one of them should be a Claude model. To change models, you’ll have to remix the linked app or create your own app. Then, choose a different model in the dropdown menu. I will demonstrate in class.
Then, write up your second blog post on this experience.
Link to Anthropic Alignment Experiment.
WEEK 4
Monday, Sept. 15th: Let’s start with Thomas Nagel, “What is it like to be bat?”. You don’t have to read the whole thing. Focus your efforts from the beginning to the top of 442 and then 449 to the end. In addition, begin work on your third blog post, which involves making something and reflecting a bit on that making. The full assignment.
Wednesday, Sept. 17th: 1. Finish the third blog post. 2. Read through the 3rd blog posts of your colleagues so far 3. And read this short reflection on narrative, imagination, and morality by Mark Johnson from his book Moral Imagination.
There is also two Claude instances talking to each other. Which I’d meant to post earlier. Take a look.
In addition, it was Eddie Murphy and Dan Akroyd in Trading Places. And they were trading Orange Juice Futures not Bonds, which is somehow funnier.
Friday, Sept. 19th: Read/Listen to this interview with Russ Shafer-Landau on Moral Realism.
Course continues in UNIT 2