2024 Northwest Mathematics Conference

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Large Language Models (LLM) have burst into the public eye over the past year. But how does this "intelligence" work, and is it going to lead to Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) that will lead us to a brighter future? And what does it all have to do with plain old linear equations? (spoiler: everything) We will do some hands-on thinking about how LLMs and other neural networks actually work and how they relate to middle school and secondary mathematics topics, and then close off with some thoughts and discussion on how to understand the larger claims of AI with a critical lens.