Artificial Intelligence: Fact & Fiction
About The Event
This event has reached capacity, and unfortunately there will be no on-site registration at the door.
This event is generously sponsored by and held at Haynes and Boone, LLP.
‘Artificial intelligence might be a threat to humans, but not for the reasons you think’ – Sir Nigel Shadbolt
Today’s computers are 1 million times more powerful than those of only forty years ago. A computer you buy today is already obsolete in terms of R & D and twice as powerful as one you could have bought 18 months ago for the same price. These incredible gains in computing are mirrored by rapid and possibly unintended advancements in artificial intelligence. Many leading experts have called for increased vigilance to ensure that developments in artificial intelligence benefit humanity. Renowned physicist Stephen Hawking has even raised the concern that artificial intelligence could ‘spell the end of the human race’.
We are a long way from giving any of these systems a complete overall intelligence or becoming truly self-aware. But we have created computers and machines, such as hunter-killer drones, that are incredibly efficient at preforming specific tasks that could eventually become dangerous, especially with the possibility of self-replication. What are the biggest concerns and indeed responsibilities that the artificial intelligence community must face in the coming years?
About The Speaker
Professor Sir Nigel Shadbolt was knighted in 2013 for his outstanding ‘services to science and engineering’. He is Chairman and Co-Founder of the Open Data Institute. Shadbolt is also Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Head of the Web and Internet Science Group, Electronics and Computer Science, at the University of Southampton. With over 400 publications, he has researched on topics ranging from cognitive psychology to computational neuroscience, artificial intelligence to the Semantic Web. Shadbolt was one of the originators of the interdisciplinary field of Web Science and is a Director of the Web Science Trust which seeks to advance our understanding of the Web and promote the Web’s positive impact on society.
In 2009 the Prime Minister appointed him and Sir Tim Berners-Lee as Information Advisors to transform access to Public Sector Information. This work led to the highly acclaimed data.gov.uk site that now provides a portal to over 9,000 datasets. Later, Shabolt was asked by the UK government to join the Public Sector Transparency Board – which oversees Open Data releases across the public sector. And in 2011, he became Chair of the UK Government’s midata programme – whose goal is to empower consumers by releasing their data back to them. Shadbolt was also awarded £10M funding via the Technology Strategy Board to set up the Open Data Institute with Sir Tim Berners-Lee.
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***Light appetizers, beer and wine will be served****
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