<p>Hey everyone, I just got accepted as a transfer to the college of letters and science at Cal. It seems I can declare my major once I'm there so I have a few options. I have a great interest in artificial intelligence and specifically computer modeling of the human brain. I'm curious whether majoring in cognitive science or computer science would be better for my interests. Maybe a double major would be best. Any thoughts on that? Or perhaps to avoid biting off more than I can chew, majoring in one and minoring in another. If so, which to major in and which to minor? I've also considered getting a bachelors in one and a masters in another.</p>
<p>Any advice or thoughts on this topic would be great. Thanks!</p>
<p>CS188 is a CS class for artificial intelligence so I’d go CS.</p>
<p>Although I won’t be attending Berkeley, I also hope to be going into AI research, so I thought I would comment. I’m going to try to double major in Math and CS (also because I love math) and minor in CogSci.</p>
<p>In terms of (hard) AI, math/cs is more important than cog sci. In soft AI/cogsci, cogsci is more prominent than in hard AI. Either way, if you plan to do anything in AI (rather than cog sci), CS is going to be the most important major out of math/CS/cogsci.</p>
<p>Best of luck!</p>
<p>@blahblah9393 - CS 188 is actually a course that cog sci majors take as well.</p>
<p>@zrathustra - I’m not familiar with the terms hard and soft AI. Is it different than strong and weak AI? Would neural nets for instance be hard or soft? Also do you think CS would still be the best major considering the Berkeley Cog Sci major has a concentration in computational modeling?</p>
<p>^Yeah I’ve never heard those terms either. What is hard/soft and strong/weak AI?</p>
<p>Also I’ve noticed having a secondary field of expertise in addition to CS seems to help in AI for many researchers. Take Dan Klein for example. He’s a AI researcher and professor here at Berkeley but he also has a Masters in Linguistics, and his AI research area is natural language processing.</p>
<p>@Diivio - strong AI is the idea that machines have the potential to meet or exceed human intelligence. WeaK AI acknoledges some degree of intelligence in machines but holds the philosophical position that they could never develop intelligence similar to or greater than humans.</p>