Artificial Intelligence

Unit Code: U31529

Level: 6

1 - GENERAL ASSESSMENT INFORMATION

Assessment 1 (30%): Movie Review

Submission Deadline: 15:00, 3 November 2025

Short Description: Watch the movie “Her”. Get a Large Language Model (such as ChatGPT) to write a 1500 word essay discussing the plausibility of the character Smantha in the context of this module, with specific reference to the academic papers by Turing and Searle which we are covering in weeks two and three of this module. Submit this response, along with your own critical appraisal ofthe LLM’s response, and your own take on the question.

upload to Moodle by Monday 3 November 2025 at 15:00

(This module is eligible for the automatic 48-hour extension)

Assessment 2 (70%): Portfolio/mini project

Submission Deadline: 26 January 2026

Short Description: The portfolio submission can be anything relating to the material covered in the module, and relevant to your degree subject and academic interests. It does not have to consist of software.

upload to Moodle by Monday 26 January 20265 at 15:00

Second Attempt:

Repeat missing assessment(s)

2. UNIT ABSTRACT, LEARNING OUTCOMES AND KEY DATES

Artificial Intelligence

Abstract

This module explores the theory and application of Artificial Intelligence and its impact on the Creative and Cultural Industries.

Students will learn about different applications of AI and will get opportunities to experiment with them using an AI teaching platform.

In the module students will read and discuss classic papers in the history of AI; will learn about “Good-old-fashioned-AI” including search algorithms and knowledge based systems; will look at connectionist and adaptive solutions to AI problems; and will learn about application domains such as data mining, situate robotics and natural language processing.

Subject to availability there will be guest lectures on e.g. Data Mining, Games AI, and Natural Language Processing.

This module is intended to be an option for students from a wide range of degree subjects, from CCI and beyond. Depending on their technical abilities students will either produce a small AI application or will write an extended essay on an aspect of AI.

UoP Hallmarks covered in this module:

3. Be able to synthesise new and existing knowledge to generate ideas and develop creative solutions of benefit to the economy and society.

4.Be intellectually curious, embrace challenges and seize opportunities for development.

5. Be able to locate, access and critically engage with information, using current and emerging digital technologies.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, students should be able to:

LO 1 Compare different conceptions of "Artificial" Intelligence and classify systems with Artificial Intelligence.

LO 2 Demonstrate how different types of AI applications can be applied to solve practical problems.

LO 3 Critically evaluate and explain the limitations of current Artificial Intelligence techniques.

Key Dates

Assignment 1 deadline 3 November 2025

Assignment 2 deadline 26 January 2026

3. ASSESSMENT 1 BRIEF

Watch the movie “Her” ( https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1798709/)

The movie is on various streaming services, or it is available on Box of Broadcasts (free with University sign in, but this would probably be harder to watch on a TV rather than a tablet or laptop).

The movie is about a writer (Joaquin Phoenix) who falls in love with his computer operating system (Scarlett Johansson).

Question:

How technically plausible do you consider the “Samantha” character (and related aspects of AI) shown in the movie to be? Pay particular attention to the Turing and Searle papers which we covered in weeks 2 and 3. How likely do you think it will be that true thinking machines will exist in the future?

In previous years, I set this question as an essay (to be completed by a human). Since this module is all about AI, the temptation to use an LLM to “assist” in this is probably overwhelming now, so I’ve decided to “flip” the assignment. For possibly the only time in your degree, you’re actually required to use AI to write your essay, at least the major part of it. I still want you to watch the movie and read the two papers, though.

Your submission should consist of two parts. Submit them as separate sections of the same document:

Part 1 (75% weighting)

Ask ChatGPT (or any other Large Language Model) to provide you with an answer to the essay question. Include the AI’s response. (For clarity, put any text produced by AI in a distinctive colour, such as purple. The main AI response will not be counted towards the 1500 word count for the assignment)

Getting a good response from an LLM requires a process of refinement in the query you submit. Describe the process you went through to obtain the final text.

Critically analyse the LLM’s response: What are its strengths? What are its weaknesses?

With the exception of this assignment, it’s considered misconduct to submit AI-generated content for assignments – all submissions are expected to be your own work. Are there any clues that I could use to tell if a student was using AI to produce a submission and attempting to pass it off as their own?

Part 2 (25% weighting)

Tell me what you think about the question – is Turing correct (if it looks like intelligence, it is intelligence) or is Searle correct (no matter how convincing the response, it’s merely “artificially signalling” its responses, and it really isn’t intelligent)? Or is your opinion something else, or in-between? Substantiate your response, using academic references if necessary.

The real essence of this assignment examining the difference in philosophical opinion between the two papers we read in weeks 2 and 3. Turing’s paper provides an empirical test to determine whether an AI system can think – but underneath this it expresses faith that machine intelligence is fundamentally possible, just not at the time Turing wrote the paper (or in the present day, for that matter). Searle’s paper presents the opposite point of view – that no matter how impressively an AI appears to perform, it is merely “artificially signalling”, and for philosophical reasons it can never actually be intelligent. I want you to compare and contrast the two opposing opinions, and then tell me what you think, with evidence to back up your opinion.

Your submission should be approximately 1500 words in length (not including any quotations – and specifically not including quoting the response from ChatGPT, which I explicitly asked to you include). By this I do not mean you have to write exactly 1500 words, and I will not be cutting marks for going over- or under-length – I am aware that rumours circulate that some lecturers do this, but I definitely don’t! Your submission should be as long as in needs to be to get across what you want to say, and the word length has to be registered on the marking system, but it’s only indicative. 900 words would be too short, 4000 words is getting on for what you would produce for a Final Year Project dissertation, and would thus be a waste of your time which could be spent on writing your dissertation – but I wouldn’t mark you down for doing this. In particular, resist the temptation to go through your essay adding or removing words until it’s the right length. You have many other things with which you could occupy yourself which be much more productive in getting yourself a good mark.

Please do go over your essay (for spelling and meaning, for example) but don’t waste your time trimming it to be exactly 1500 words plus-or-minus 10%.

The best way to get a really good mark for this assignment (as with many assignments) is to “write to the marking grid”. On page 5 of this document you will see the marking grid for the assignment – which I will use to mark your submission. Go through your submission looking and each criterion and seeing if you have fulfilled the requirements for each grade band. If you have fulfilled the brief for each criterion, you will get a good mark: if you have fulfilled one of them, but missed out another I have no way to “borrow” marks from one to another, and you will not get the grade you deserve.

Submit your essay via the Moodle link by Monday 3 November 2025 at 15:00

This assessment qualifies for the automatic 2-day extension – so submit by 15:00 Wednesday 5 November!

Assessment Criteria

                                                                                            Learning Outcome

Understanding of the movie’s themes                                             LO1

Applying context of academic background material                           LO1

General Writing style. structure of argument                                    n/a

Academic style. footnotes and references                                         n/a