AI foundation course at MupplesUniversity? Sounds interesting! An AI course from Prof Illik? But let’s take it slowly. It’s been under discussion since September 2023 – yes! It’s currently being negotiated with a university outside of Europe, that much I can reveal. This is also common knowledge: at the beginning of the 2000s, I regularly travelled to universities in China and Hong Kong for over a decade, on behalf of the Wi faculty at HFU in Furtwangen.
The place, the country, everything was exciting. My experiences there will be incorporated into the MupplesUniversity course. However, I will first take the opportunity to write about how I came to teach an AI course in the first place. What connects me to artificial intelligence in the first place?
AI took its course during my last years at the Technical University of Munich, or TUM for short.
The AI course will not be in China or Hong Kong, although it won’t be too far away. I can’t (quite) believe it myself yet and will only reveal the location when I have the flight tickets in my pocket. I will allow myself the fun of posting from the airport and then reveal the location. I promise.
From there I was able to take with me the tools in the areas of neural networks and expert systems to work as a programmer at Softlab. When I then left Softlab to devote myself to my passions with my own company (Ambit Informatik), i.e. developing and marketing software products, the products were not quite ready and were not pushed forward during my time as an employee at Softlab, although I would have been interested in doing so.
The first product was to emerge from the student network project, a product from the field of artificial intelligence, today we would call it a neural network. The term had not yet been coined at the time and, to be honest, we were thinking more of an expert system as an application of the network. The AI Basics course will also deal with neural networks.
I’ll start by sorting through my own AI past
This network system was rudimentary enough to be used for Linear Optimisation but was still a long way from the product we envisioned at Ambit in terms of functionality. The product torso was programmed with the C programming language, making extensive use of C pointers.
The second product was a kind of office application. My later partner, with whom I then actually founded the company, had the foresight and I had a few pieces of software, a few pieces of program in peto: written based on Unix, also with the programming language C and with a graphical user interface.
But let’s forget about that. From today’s perspective, I would say that we wouldn’t have stood a chance against Microsoft Office anyway. Just this much: photos of the user interface (for a later sales brochure) were produced.
Let us briefly return to the neural network AI application. Strictly speaking, the product was a child of the first AI spring of the early 1980s. As a student at TUM, I had to experience how the first hopes for AI cooled down and the special research areas of the mathematics faculty (where half of the business informatics was located) reduced their activities and personnel due to a lack of state research funding from the Bavarian Academy of Science. I don’t want to say that AI was dead when I left TUM, but the topic only caught up with me as a young professional at Softlab when massive parallel computer architectures became the focus of computer scientists because Japan was making headlines with the so-called fifth-generation computer project.
I realised this at the time because I was working at the source (part-time) as a freelancer for Stuttgarter Computer Magazin.
To be continued. Your comments are welcome.
Great Idea! Also essential reading for the AI course:
Amy Webb’s book “The Big Nine” provides a thought-provoking analysis of the impact of artificial intelligence from the perspective of major tech companies in China and the U.S. Webb delves into the potential risks and biases embedded in AI systems developed by these companies. Her insights on the future of AI, its ethical implications, and the need for global cooperation make this book a compelling read for anyone interested in the intersection of technology and society.
I agree with Katharina. I also have an AI book recommendation:
Julian Nida-Rümelin’s concept of DIGITAL HUMANISM presents a compelling argument for placing human values at the center of technological advancement. He emphasizes the importance of prioritizing human well-being, dignity, and autonomy in the development and use of technology. Nida-Rümelin’s perspective calls for a reevaluation of our relationship with technology to ensure it serves humanity’s best interests. His ideas on fostering a more ethical and human-centric approach to innovation in the digital age offer valuable insights for navigating the complexities of technology’s role in society.