Artificial Intelligence research has been around for 60+ years. While it has long been regarded as the cutting edge of computer science it has been a bit of a backwater. But the last few years have seen dramatic change with new techniques bringing breakthroughs in game playing, vision processing, language translation and autonomous machines. Suddenly philosophical discussions about the future role of machine intelligence have taken on urgency. We examine why this has happened, what the issues are and what the pundits are saying. The course is supported by a website with links to the readings and videos presented in class.Michael Werner is a retired computer science professor from Wentworth Institute of Technology.  He has a Ph.D. in computer science from Northeastern University and an M.S. in mathematics from the University of Illinois. Mike’s involvement with computers started in 1963.  His recent teaching specialties have been in programming languages and 3D graphics on Android phones, but lately his interests have shifted to the philosophical implications of the computer revolution. Currently Mike leads study groups at Tufts University’s adult education (Osher) program.