What is Artificial Intelligence?

Pádraig Cunningham

• 📅Tuesday, September 10, 2024
• 🕥10:30 – 12:30
• 🏟Newtownpark Pastoral Centre (map)

The impressive performance of AI systems such as ChatGPT has led to a lot of speculation about the ultimate potential of this technology. This talk will address this question. It will start with the early research in this area, beginning with the Turing Test for intelligence proposed by Alan Turing in the 1950s. Most people would accept that ChatGPT would pass the Turing Test. However, systems such as ChatGPT seem to be ‘intelligent’ without understanding or consciousness. Are these systems a huge leap forward in AI research? Do they present an existential threat for humankind? During this talk we will discuss in high level terms how these systems work and speculate on the limitations of the technology.

Pádraig Cunningham is Professor of Knowledge and Data Engineering in the School of Computer Science in University College Dublin. He has a PhD in the general area of Artificial Intelligence from Trinity College Dublin awarded in 1989 and a DSc from the National University of Ireland awarded in 2014. He has published over 200 peer-reviewed papers in the general area of applied AI, focusing on machine learning and knowledge based systems for decision support in engineering, e-commerce, finance and medicine. His most recent research addresses issues of bias and fairness in machine learning systems. His teaching in UCD focuses on machine learning and data analytics.

When not teaching and researching in AI he is a keen hiker and recreational cyclist.