Participants2
Language. 🌐
One word, but such an intricate meaning.
It is in the habit of saying that language is the ability to express a thought. In many possible ways: voice, writing, gestures…. More precisely, it would be a “system of communication consisting of sounds, words, and grammar”, also “used by people living in a particular country”.
But that would be only because thoughts would exist behind.
Do you agree with that? Or does it seem to you too simplified or too binary?
Ask yourself the question, anyway, because the language will be our corner stone/keystone throughout this course and the one that will follow; the nerve centre around which one everything else will come out of.
You will quickly notice how much we are going to launch ourselves into a complex subject ; fascinating, but with many ramifications – and many, still unknown.
Are we always thinking what we say, or say we all we think?
It’s a simple question, asked like this, but at the same time, it is a deep reasoning. Because it interrogates upon what makes us humans; what makes us sentient people.
And besides, what thinking means, in fact?
The advent of Artificial Intelligence brings many philosophical questions along ; because more than questioning only the AI itself, it is also an occasion to wonder about humanity itself.
What is defining us, to which extent can we pretend to be “intelligent”, and which difference can we drop between AI and us?
The “intelligent” term will be, also, a kind of cornerstone throughout the course. Is an AI machine able to think, and if we pretend that yes, can we consider it as Intelligent?
The AI field is huge and very complex; we cannot hope to delve into it without studying before many ramifications that revolve around AI in general; because their understanding will help us to better apprehend the ins and outs of it.
These ramifications cannot be exhaustive at all – and it’s not anyway the purpose -, but they will be modestly 3 and will enable us to navigate, modestly and as strangers, in the wake of unidentified and mysterious territory: the one of the Language and the Universe of the Words. For that, the three sectors on which we will focus will be: the Language and its interpretation, the responsibility we all have behind the words, and the studying and practising of the Fake News.
We will be able, at the end of the course, to open a new door; one of the AI fields.
A significant part of the course will be very theoretical, with texts, videos, and above all, with many issues on which to think about. This course cannot be done and perceived without a philosophical questioning, deep reasoning ; it is even maybe the most interesting aspect of the Language, Journalism and AI field that will follow; and it’s also completely necessary for the practice that will take place throughout the course, after each chapter, with some Quiz to test your knowledge acquired and some hands-on – exercises that will occur at the good moment.
The reflexion of what we’re doing, why we do that, how to remind in harmony with our values, how to interrogate our choice and our way of thinking, how to act in favor of humanity before passing to the next (AI field) will be as so many halts from the beginning to the end of the course.
The course will manage as well PDF documents and PowerPoint with theoretical information, as PowerPoint for hands-on and some Quiz. The purpose will be for you to proceed between all of these mediums to get the most out of this course.
So, let’s open the first door, and let’s lead ourselves afterwards through the meandering of this huge Reflection that will lead you to the next course.