CS372: Artificial General Intelligence for Reasoning, Planning, and Decision Making

Winter 2026 Β· Stanford University

Instructor: Prof. Edward Y. Chang

Course Assistant: Longling Gloria Geng

Lectures: Mondays & Wednesdays, 4:30 – 5:50 PM (Starting January 5, 2026)

Location: NVIDIA Auditorium

Announcements

1.14.2026 Office hours announced.
1.7.2026 Assignment #1 posted – form your team ASAP, due in a week.
12.28.2025 Please download the textbook Multi-LLM Collaborative Intelligence (MACI), The Path to AGI and read at least the preface and epilogue before the first lecture.

Course Overview

Join us for an audacious aimβ€”elevating LLMs from pattern matching to conscious reasoning, validation, and planning.

Large Language Models (LLMs) have revolutionized AI through remarkable pattern matching capabilities. However, the path to Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) requires advancing beyond unconscious, reactive processing (automatic, stimulus-response behavior) to deliberate reasoning and validated planning. This course explores approaches to enhance LLMs with AGI-oriented capabilities through systematic reasoning, planning, and decision-making.

Core Questions

  1. How can we enable LLMs to transition from pattern matching to conscious deliberation?
  2. What frameworks support robust reasoning and verifiable decisions?
  3. How do we implement planning and temporal awareness in LLM systems?
  4. What role does multi-LLM agent collaboration play in advancing toward AGI capabilities?
  5. More generally, what are the limitations of the current LLM architecture to overcome?

The Course Examines

  1. Theoretical foundations of consciousness, reasoning, and planning in AI
  2. Multi-LLM Agent Collaborative Intelligence (MACI) frameworks
  3. Entropy-guided information exchange
  4. AI ethical alignment with checks and balance
  5. Linguistic behavior modeling
  6. Persistent memory management for validation and long-lived workflow
  7. Temporal reasoning and planning system architectures

Through lectures, discussions, and hands-on projects, students will explore and implement multi-agent systems that advance beyond current state-of-the-art frameworks (e.g., LangGraph) to address planning problems across various domains, including project planning, supply chain management, emergency room logistics, and natural disaster response.

Prerequisites: Completion of Machine Learning and Deep Learning courses, along with substantial experience with LLMs.

Grading

  1. Assignments: 30%
  2. Dashes: 20%
  3. Final Presentation and Report: 40%
  4. Class Participation: 10%

Resources

Textbook

The required textbook: Multi-LLM Collaborative Intelligence (MACI), The Path to AGI by Edward Y. Chang, December 2025, ACM Books.

Reading Materials

Additional reading materials and supplementary content can be found on SocraSynth.com.

Office Hours

  1. Monday 1:30 PM – 3:30 PM, CoDA B44 β€” Longling Geng
  2. Wednesday 1:30 PM – 3:30 PM, Gates 486 β€” Edward Y. Chang

Schedule

The following schedule is a sample from last year.

# Date Topic Materials Instructor Deadlines
1 1/5/2026 Course Aims and Syllabus; From QA to Complex Reasoning and Planning; Can LLMs Achieve AGI? Slides | Recorded | Preface, AGI Book Vol #1 E. Chang
2 1/7 Reasoning #1 Pearl's Causality Hierarchy, and Assignment #1 Specification Slides | Recorded E. Chang Assignment #1 out
3 1/12 Reasoning #2 PID Architecture for Sycophancy and Skepticism Slides | Recorded | AGI Book, Vol #2, Ch 6, 7 E. Chang, Gloria Geng β€”
4 1/14 Reasoning #3 Prompting Large Language Models With the Socratic Method Slides | Recorded on Canvas | AGI Book, Vol #1, Chapter 5 E. Chang Assignment #1 due
5 1/19 Martin Luther King, Jr., Day (holiday, no classes) Assignment #2 out
6 1/21 Reasoning #4 Reasoning Recap and Planning Intro Slides | Recorded on Canvas | AGI Book, Vol #2, Ch 4; Vol #1, Chapter 12 E. Chang
7 1/26 AGI #1 Multi-LLM Agent Collaborative Intelligence Slides | Recorded on Canvas | AGI Book, Vol #1, Chapters 6 and Chapter 7 Class
8 1/28 ASI #1 What is Consciousness, System 2 Introduction Slides | Recorded | AGI Book, Vol #1, Chapters 13 E. Chang Assignment #2 due
9 2/2 AGI #2 MACI Survey and Pathologies in Multi-Agent Debate Systems Slides | Recorded Canvas | AGI Book, Vol #2, Chapter 8 E. Chang Final Project proposal due
10 2/4 ASI #2 Computational Consciousness: Free Will, Ethic Modeling Slides | Recorded | AGI Book, Vol #1, Chapters 13 E. Chang
11 2/9 AGI #3 MACI New Design with Ghost Nodes Slides | Chapter 12 E. Chang
12 2/11 Planning #2 SagaLLM: Context Management, Validation, and Transaction Guarantees Slides | Chapter 11 E. Chang
13 2/16 Presidents' Day (holiday, no classes)
14 2/18 Midterm Project Dash, Session 1 All β€”
15 2/23 Midterm Project Dash, Session 2 All β€”
16 2/25 Application #1 LLMs with Healthcare (The Fourth Wave of AI Failures?) Slides | Chapter 9 E. Chang β€”
17 3/2 Application #2 LLMs and Psychological Disorders Guest Speaker β€”
18 3/4 Highlights of Natural Language Processing History, 70 Years in 70 Minutes Slides | Recorded Lecture | Chapters 1, 2 Online β€”
19 3/9 ASI #3 Artificial Super Intelligence Slides | E. Chang
20 3/11 Final Presentation Slides | Readings Group 1 β€”
21 3/13 Final Presentation Slides | Readings Group 2 β€”