Skip to content

JA1. Learning Journal 1

The Learning Journal is a tool for self-reflection on the learning process. The Learning Journal will be assessed by your instructor as part of your Final Grade.

Answer the following questions

1. Describe what you did. You need to describe what you did and how you did it

This was the first week of this course, and I started by reviewing the course syllabus and the learning materials. I also reviewed the learning guides for the coming weeks so I can have a better plan for the rest of the term especially as I am taking two more courses this term. I then tested my self with the self quiz which I get 60% on the first try. Then, I watched the recorded lectures and moved to the reading materials of the week.

2. Describe your reactions to what you did

The book “Artificial Intelligence: Foundations of Computational Agents” by Poole and Mackworth is a great resource for this course. I found the first chapter to be very informative and easy to comprehend with practical examples that conveys the message very well.

3. Describe any feedback you received or any specific interactions you had while participating discussion forum or the assignment Discuss how they were helpful

There was no feedback for this week.

4. Describe what you learned. You can think of one or more topics and explain your understanding in writings

I learned about the definition of artificial intelligence, smart agents, and the tests that asses if an agent is intelligent or not such as Turing and the Chinese Room tests. I read then a brief history of AI, the relationship between agents and their environment, and the dimensions of the agent design space.

The dimensions of the agent design space which are modularity, planning horizon, representation, computational limits, learning, sensing uncertainty, effect uncertainty, preferences, and number of agents. The table below summarizes different keywords and concepts related to each dimension:

Dimension Values
Modularity Flat, Modular, Hierarchical.
Planning Non-planning, Finite, Indefinite, Infinite stages.
Representation Features, Propositions, Relations, Individuals.
Computational Limits Perfect, Bounded rationality.
Learning Given, Learned.
Sensing Uncertainty Fully observable, Partially observable.
Effect Uncertainty Deterministic, Stochastic.
Preferences Goals, Ordinal, Cardinal.
Number of Agents Single, Adversarial, Multiple.
Interactivity Offline, Online.

5. Did you face any challenges while doing the discussion or the development assignment? Were you able to solve it by yourself?

Yes, designing a Self-Driving Car (SDC) model was a bit challenging as it is a complex model and I did not know where to start. I overcome the challenge by explaining that SDC is a complex model that needs smaller modules for functionality such as localization, path planning, collision avoidance, internal monitoring, and communications with other cars and entities on the road. I explained the dimensions of the agent design space in the general first and then discussed those dimensions in the context of a self-driving car (SDC) model giving examples of each dimension.

Artificial Intelligence, like every other major technological advancement, has its deep changes in society and raises many ethical issues. One of the major ethical issues is the potential loss of jobs due to automation. Software engineering field now is facing a great challenge due to the hiring freeze and the layoffs that are happening in the industry which are directly or indirectly related to the AI and automation (Tuzel, 2024).

There also growing concerns about the scale and extensiveness of malicious attacks and other security breaches augmented by unethical use of AI technologies such as generative AI chat bots in developing malicious tools or improving the efficiency of existing ones. This is a major concern for the security of the internet and the privacy of the users (Dryka & Pluszczewska, 2024).

In the field of teaching and learning, AI-written assignments and essays are becoming a major concern for many universities. While using AI in learning is not a problem as the text itself gives an example of an AI tutor, the problem is letting the AI do the work without the user actually learning anything.

References