5 talks about Artificial Intelligence not to miss
2018 saw a surge in interest within tech towards AI and its possible permutations throughout business, society, travel, education, and just about anything you can think of.
Often leading discussions was a focus on where AI could possibly take us in the near future, and how we can guide the technology to our advantage with ethics front-of-mind.
5. What can Deep Learning Reveal About Beautiful Places?
Chanuki Seresinhe, a doctoral researcher at the Warwick Business School and the Alan Turing Institute, delivered a talk in July that explored how algorithms can, in fact, discern beauty, giving the adage that ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder’ a new dimension.
“When we’re thinking about what’s beautiful, is there a collective understanding of beauty? There are some theories that say that our preferences might be shaped by evolution and that there might be a collective understanding of beauty that we can actually measure.”
4. Ethical Artificial Intelligence
The title says it all. Ethics in tech, such as neuroethics (stemming from the neurotech industry), is nothing new — as long as we have been inventing new machines we have been discussing whether it is a good idea to wield those machines for our advantage. The sheer scale of AI, however, and the lack of detailed understanding from the wider population, means that discussions around the paths we need to remain on within tech strike a chord with many, and evoke passionate responses.
At Infiniteconf in London last year, Hollie Lubbock ( Interaction Design Manager at Fjord), talked about how those creating the capabilities and those shaping these capabilities into new innovations for AI can address fairness, accountability and the long-term effects on society when designing with data.
3. Machine Learning and Human Intelligence: How AI and Big Data can Transform Education
Rose Luckin is Professor of Learner Centred Design at UCL Knowledge Lab in London and is a sought-after speaker when it comes to the future of education. In her own words, “Everybody cares about education”, which is why the role of AI in education is one that is turning heads within Edtech.
This talk makes the list because Rose goes beyond posing questions or listing problems to suggest real solutions and approaches that those within education can do today to incorporate current and future understandings of AI into the education system.
2. Why Real-Time is the Future
For the data scientists out there, Jesse Anderson (of the Big Data Institute) gave a great talk last year on the limitations of batch Big Data systems and how data scientists, developers, managers, entrepreneurs, and just about anyone can start to think about and prepare for what real-time systems promise.
“Real-time is just getting started…in the US, it really lived up to the ideals of what I thought was actually going to happen. Real-time has been happening, but at a small scale, and that makes the difference.”
1. Deep Learning and Smart Cities
Rodrigo Ceron, IBM Master Inventor and Senior Managing Consultant at IBM Lab Services, spoke in May last year about how DL is already being utilised within cities to help city planners manage and prepare for swelling city populations across the world.
Civic engineering and planning are one of the first areas of society that people associate with the potential applications of AI. In this talk, Rodrigo focuses on how algorithms can be efficiently leveraged in the management and prevention of road incidents in our cities.
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