Abstract
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is in the zeitgeist. The Chief Economist of the Bank of England recently predicted AI will destroy 50% of jobs in the UK. In 2015, thousands of AI researchers signed an Open Letter predicting that AI could transform warfare and lead to an armsrace of "killer robots". And Stephen Hawking and others have predicted that AI could end humanity itself. What should you make of all these predictions? What should we do to ensure a safe and prosperous future for all?
Short CV
Toby Walsh is a leading researcher in Artificial Intelligence. He was recently named in the inaugural Knowledge Nation 100, the one hundred "rock stars" of Australia's digital revolution. He is Guest Professor at TU Berlin, Scientia Professor of Artificial Intelligence at UNSW and leads the Algorithmic Decision Theory group at Data61, Australia's Centre of Excellence for ICT Research. He has been elected a fellow of the Australian Academy ofScience, and has won the prestigious Humboldt research award as well as the 2016 NSW Premier's Prize for Excellence in Engineering and ICT. He has previously held research positions in England, Scotland, France, Germany, Italy, Ireland and Sweden. He regularly appears in the media talking about the impact of AI and robotics. In the last year, he has appeared in TV and the radio on the ABC, BBC, Channel 7, Channel 9, Channel10, CCTV, DW, NPR, RT, SBS, and VOA, as well as on numerous local radio stations. He also writes frequently for print and online media. His work has appeared in the New Scientist, American Scientist, Le Scienze, Cosmos and The Best Writing in Mathematics (Princeton University Press). His twitter account has been voted one of the top ten to follow to keep abreast of developments in AI. He often gives talks at public and trade events like CeBIT, the World Knowledge Forum, TEDx, The Next Big Thing Summit, and PauseFest. He has played a key role at the UN and elsewhere on the campaign to ban lethal autonomous weapons (aka "killer robots").
Host: Prof. Dr. Tobias Friedrich
