This class was difficult, I think everyone would agree on that considering at least one person left our final exam in tears. This professor is amusing and likable, but unfortunately difficult to understand with his thick accent. He's very passionate about AI but expects you to share that same enthusiasm and therefore moves very quickly through the material before you even have a chance to grasp it. The TA wasn't too helpful as she seemed confused by the material too, so myself and a lot of my peers had to rely on ChatGPT to teach us this course. Everyone seemed lost besides a few people, even if they went to office hours. I will say that the HW assignments are easy and can be used to bump your grade, but just know that this class will be a challenge. Math is used, nothing too crazy, but it was confusing when mixed with the already confusing course material. On the Midterm and Final it's all short answer, and you will need to know examples from class, he had tiny details mentioned in lecture slides or you would have to fill in blank sections of images from the PowerPoints. I ended with a 79.9 percent, despite getting As on all the HW, and still was not curved unfortunately. It's a challenge for sure, but if you ask ChatGPT to break down the material in simple terms, it will really make a difference in actually learning the material.

This was such a fun and relevant class! Prof Gao updated the content and slides to keep up with current trends (Sag-aftra strike, chatgpt updates, etc) and all the homeworks were enjoyable and easy. The midterms and finals require a bit of review, but if you go to all the lectures you should be fine. Prof also uses class time to answer any questions before the exams and tells you what will/won't be on the final.