Between digitization and prestidigitation, an appreciation of the cognitive mechanisms underlying human perception and reasoning can be used as valuable inspiration for Artificial Intelligence (AI) researchers to construct intelligent systems—or instead, can be used as magicians' devices to persuade audiences of their legerdemain.
David Gondek, SAIC's first-ever visiting Scientist-in-Residence will attempt to untease into which camp Artificial Intelligence falls by exploring the science behind its recent advancements, the scientific and media portrayals of notable human-machine matchups such as computer chess and Jeopardy!, and more recent attempts to predict the imminent dissemination of intelligent machines into other domains. Along the way he will discuss how to peel back the curtain to understand and assess AI technologies such as Knowledge Representation, Machine Learning, and Natural Language Processing which underlie many of the cutting-edge systems in use today; revisit the recent history of human-machine misunderstandings; and look forward to what the future might hold for progressively intelligent computer systems and the world that we will increasingly share.
David Gondek is the first Scientist-in-Residence at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. At IBM Research, he led the Watson Game Strategy and Knowledge Capture and Learning groups for the IBM Jeopardy! Challenge, which saw a computer system defeat grand champions Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter on the nationally televised quiz show in 2011. For this victory the project received the distinction of winning both the AAAI Feigenbaum Prize for advancements in experimental Artificial Intelligence as well as the first Webby "Person of the Year" Award granted to a computer system. Following Watson's victory, Gondek served as Technical Lead for IBM Research's adaptation of Watson to the medical domain before leaving IBM in 2013. He holds a B.A. in Mathematics and Computer Science from Dartmouth College and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Brown University.
This event is open to the general public.
