Intelligent Agents: Personal to Societal

This unit introduces the foundations and broad impacts of intelligent agents, exploring definitions of agency, technological convergences, and the ways AI transforms homes, work, economies, and culture. Students will examine safety, creativity, and career/business implications to prepare for hands-on design and technical units that follow.

Learning Objectives

• Analyze definitions and architectures of intelligence and agency by comparing historical concepts and contemporary agent examples to explain how autonomous systems perceive, decide, and act in human environments.
• Evaluate personal, economic, and societal case studies of AI agents to identify potential benefits, risks, distributional effects, and equity implications supported by evidence.
• Apply AI safety and ethical frameworks to proposed agent deployments by identifying likely hazards, proposing mitigation strategies, and recommending governance or policy measures for home, workplace, and public settings.
• Demonstrate the creation of a realistic adaptation plan (personal career pathway or new business model) that leverages agent capabilities, including milestones, success metrics, and considerations for creativity and market impact.