Useful links
Microsoft office 365 disruptions
There is a global Microsoft 365 service degradation affecting University access to Outlook email and, in some cases, other M365 applications. You are advised to use alternative communication channels. Existing enquiries submitted through the Services Portal continue to be progressed, with updates remaining accessible to students. We encourage students to regularly check their enquiries via the Portal for the latest information and outcomes, while Outlook services remain unavailable. If you need support, contact the University Service Desk on 9351 2000, Student Centre on 1800 SYD UNI (1800 793 864) or Protective Services on 1800 SYD HLP (1800 793 457). Students can connect with Student Wellbeing via the Student Wellbeing Portal.
Unit of study_
COMP9208: Artificial Intelligence and Society
2026 unit information
This unit introduces the basic concepts and methods of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tailored to science, technology, engineering, math, medicine, business, and humanities students. AI is aimed to design machines that can replicate and surpass human intelligence. AI agents include any artificial system that senses its environment, takes actions towards its goals, and improves its performance with experience (e.g., self-driving car, face recognition, automatic language translation, humanoid robot, fraud detection, virtual assistant, and so on). Modern applications of AI are pervasive: they increase industrial efficiency and labour productivity, improve population health, accelerate scientific advances and enhance social interactions. This unit covers the foundations of these multi-disciplinary applications, relating real-world scenarios to simple examples and essential AI methods, such as search, planning and machine learning.
Unit details and rules
Managing faculty or University school:
Engineering
| Study level | Postgraduate |
|---|---|
| Academic unit | Computer Science |
| Credit points | 6 |
|
Prerequisites:
?
|
None |
|---|---|
|
Corequisites:
?
|
None |
| Prohibitions:
?
|
None |
| Assumed knowledge:
?
|
Competency in 1st year mathematics. Exposure to computer programming would be useful but not mandatory |
At the completion of this unit, you should be able to:
- LO1. Information Seeking
- LO2. Maths/Science Methods and Tools
- LO3. Engineering/IT Specialisation
- LO4. Design
Unit availability
This section lists the session, attendance modes and locations the unit is available in. There is a unit outline for each of the unit availabilities, which gives you information about the unit including assessment details and a schedule of weekly activities.
The outline is published 2 weeks before the first day of teaching. You can look at previous outlines for a guide to the details of a unit.
Find your current year census dates
Modes of attendance (MoA)
This refers to the Mode of attendance (MoA) for the unit as it appears when you’re selecting your units in Sydney Student. Find more information about modes of attendance on our website.
Disclaimer
Important: the University of Sydney regularly reviews units of study and reserves the right to change the units of study available annually. To stay up to date on available study options, including unit of study details and availability, refer to the relevant handbook.
To help you understand common terms that we use at the University, we offer an online glossary.