🔗 ← AI for GIs - Introduction to Artificial Intelligence | Module 2: Platforms and Tools →
Classes 1-7: What is AI, The AI Family Tree, History of AI, AI Capabilities, Understanding LLM Performance, Commercial LLM Platforms, Prompt Engineering
Military leaders deploying artificial intelligence confront fundamental knowledge gaps spanning definitional ambiguity, architectural complexity, performance constraints, and deployment frameworks that impede sound judgment. Module 1 establishes a comprehensive foundation through seven sequential classes progressing from theoretical grounding to operational employment.
The curriculum addresses AI's contested definitions and technical boundaries, maps the nested hierarchy from broad artificial intelligence through machine learning and deep learning to contemporary large language models, traces historical evolution from the 1956 Dartmouth Conference through two AI winters to the 2012 deep learning breakthrough and 2017 transformer revolution, examines four core capability categories with corresponding failure modes, explicates tokenization mechanics and context window constraints governing all large language model operations, compares six major commercial platforms across performance-cost-capability dimensions, and culminates with prompt engineering frameworks translating human strategic intent into effective AI instructions. The integrated sequence enables leaders to distinguish marketing claims from technical reality, calculate token requirements and context capacity for operational documents, match specific models to mission requirements through systematic evaluation of speed-price-intelligence tradeoffs, construct effective prompts using the Persona-Task-Context-Format framework that parallels five-paragraph operation order structure, configure model parameters controlling output determinism versus creativity, and select appropriate techniques from zero-shot prompting through retrieval-augmented generation based on task complexity.
Leaders completing Module 1 acquire analytical capability to evaluate vendor proposals objectively, deploy AI systems with appropriate skepticism while leveraging genuine capabilities, recognize when AI outputs require human verification versus independent action, and maintain accountability for consequential decisions while extracting operational value from AI technologies across intelligence analysis, logistics planning, and course of action development. The module synthesizes seventy years of AI research into actionable frameworks applicable to immediate procurement decisions, deployment planning, and operational employment across military organizations at battalion through joint task force echelons.
Class 1: What is AI (and What It Is Not)
Class 3: A Brief History of AI
