Natural intelligence

One goal of artificial intelligence is to build machines that can operate in the real world, with all its noise and uncertainty. Much of what we want machines to do (see, recognise, navigate, move, coordinate) is already done very well by simple creatures. In this free course, Natural intelligence, we look at how such creatures achieve these goals and start to understand how we can build machines with the same capabilities.

Course learning outcomes

After studying this course, you should be able to:

Write a short paragraph outlining a broad definition of natural intelligence, rooted in some of the features of natural systems

Give a number of examples of natural systems that seem to be purposeful, systematic and ordered

Give contrasting definitions of the words ‘natural’, ‘artificial’ and ‘living’, explaining some of the difficulties that arise in drawing firm boundaries between them

Write a short definition of the term ‘nouvelle AI’ and contrast this with Symbolic Al.