Artificial Intelligence 101
for Community College or
Vocational Technical School

Abstract
A curriculum is presented for the start of a year-long course in artificial intelligence (AI) leading to a Certificate for AI Mind Maintainer.

Introduction
Although knowledge of both English and a computer programming language may be considered as prerequisites for AI 101, a student could be learning English and programming concurrently with the taking of this course. A gifted student, especially a person already having a B.S. or a Ph.D. in computer science, could conceivably take AI 101, AI 102 and AI 103 all at the same time, so a community college or a vocational technical school with sufficient human resources might well consider teaching AI 101 at, say, 8:30 a.m. and AI 102 at 9:30 a.m. and AI 103 at 10:30 a.m. so as to provide maximum leeway in the arrangement of student schedules.

The beginning of the year-long course for AI Mind Maintainers is concerned mainly with the necessary Theory of Mind for concept-based artificial intelligence and with the relatively straightforward and simple programming of providing sensory input of natural language into an emerging AI Mind or to a pre-existing AI in need of tending by an AI Mind Maintainer. The middle part of the year-long course is concerned with thinking, and the final portion of the course deals with more advanced topics.

• Week 01: Neuroscience and Theory of Mind
  For a theory of how the mind works, we assign the reading of
  
  • Natural Language through Abstract Memory; and
  • Brain-Mind: Know Thyself!

• Week 02: Computer Science
  We introduce JavaScript or Perl another programming language.

• Week 03: Linguistics
  Students review English syntax and minor inflectional word-endings.

• Week 04: Sensorium and Motorium
  Students shall study first the Sensorium module as the initial pathway of auditory input into the memory of the AI Mind. Instructors will contrast the Sensorium module for input with the robot Motorium module for output.

• Week 05: OldConcept and NewConcept
  Students shall learn that the sensory inputs lead to concepts in the AI Mind, and that either old concepts are recognized or a new concept is formed when an English word is not recognized as being an already known, old concept.

• Week 06: InStantiate and EnParser
  The class shall learn that the English-parsing EnParser module and the InStantiate module work together to achieve Natural Language Understanding of any English sentence of input to the AI Mind.

• Week 07: AI Main Loop and MindBoot Sequence
  • Learning about the MainLoop module will include the fact that the MindBoot sequence is called only once to load the AI Mind with some basic English vocabulary to get the AI up and running with the ability to learn more English words from human users. Students shall interact with the AI Mind and create transcripts of their interaction showing various features and functions of the AI Mind.

• Week 08: ReJuvenate for Immortal AI
  Academics will admit that the ReJuvenate module is necessary only if the artificial intelligence has such a limited memory that it becomes necessary to forget the oldest memories in order to make room for new memories.

• Week 09: Free Will and Volition
  Before the study of thinking, which along with emotion is a component of free will or volition, students shall learn that the volition module calls the emotion module and the thinking module.

• Week 11: A Preview of AI Thinking
  Discussion of how artificial intelligence may inherently contain certain kinds of bias unwittingly introduced by the AI coder or AI Mind Maintainer, leading to questions of AI ethics and responsibility.

• Week 12: Review for Final Exam