1. The Promise and Perils of Artificial Intelligence Part I
Osmar Zaiane and Kim Solez

2. AI may seem like just another subject, but it probably is the most important area addressed in this course.
The technologic Singularity is crucially dependent on AI developments, unfriendly AI represents the greatest existential risk out there, and many significant figures in Singularity circles have a primary interest in AI, namely Ben Goertzel, Neil Jacobstein, Eliezer Yudkowsky, and Jaron Lanier.

3. AI is very important to the Singularity, but that does not mean that all AI researchers believe in the Singularity
It does not naturally follow that all AI researchers are believers in the Singularity.  Some are, some aren't, with every flavor in between you can imagine.

4. You can read about AI in books, and you can experience it first hand which is more vivid.
It is amazing how much of a "relationship" you can strike up with the Sony Aibo robotic dog despite the fact it represents 2005 technology, none have been produced since then.  Imagine what their capabilities would be today if Sony had continued developing them over the past six years!

5. There was much less interest in the Aibo in Canada than in the US.
 The only way I could get one in 2003 and 2004 was to fly to the US stay in a hotel just long enough for the product to be delivered and then fly back home, they were impossible to get in Canada after 2002 through regular Sony channels here as there was not a market among Canadian consumers.

6. They are “adult” toys. The ears and tail come off very easily.
A child playing with them quickly deconstructs them to a point where they look quite ugly and incomplete.  The main market in the US was affluent young women.

7. Asia will lead the way in development of robots for consumers.
Most government investment in robotics in North America is in military robots, whereas the investment in Asia is in robots to care for the elderly and do household tasks.  Most consumer developments in this area while probably emerge from Asia.

8. Blade Runner, classic 1982 movie, is part of people’s consciousness in this area
However many people forget that the replicants in the movie are biology based flesh and blood beings, not silicon and circuit boards. 

9. Very different from the robot in the movie AI