Artificial intelligence (A.I.) is a popular topic at the moment among the nation's tech companies--and a lucrative one for the tech pros who specialize in it. Conventional wisdom holds that anyone interested in becoming a master in A.I. and machine learning must undergo many years of education and training; the best-paid researchers in the field make millions, but only after years of study. Is there any way to accelerate that process? Carnegie Mellon thinks so: The university has just launched an undergraduate degree in artificial intelligence, designed to fill the tech industry's seemingly unstoppable hunger for tech pros who can find their way around a machine-learning algorithm. The school claims that this is the first instance in the United States of a school offering an A.I.-centric BA.