The stakes of this lecture are as follows: Can an ordinary person having a high school education and genuine interest understand the basic principles of Artificial Intelligence in just an one-hour lecture? If so, there is hope that she/he can comprehend the current AI Science advances and become an informed citizen that can form her/his opinion about the AI impact in her/his profession (whether they are a taxi driver, artist, manager, or anything else) and even at more broad level. If not, people have to rely on various AI “gurus” and try to sense where AI Science and Engineering is heading. Even worse, they might become technophobic: history has shown that when a society relies on fear and prejudice, it is inevitably doomed (as seen in the Middle Ages and more recently in fascist regimes).
