Artificial Intelligence - A Mixed Bag

Artificial Intelligence owes its current successes to the extraordinary improvement in computer hardware (in my lifetime, computing has become a trillion times cheaper!). At the same time, the Internet has made available vast amounts of data for these programs to handle.

The benefits of AI will be profound. But so will the social disruption. I will survey how we got here, where we are going, and the benefits and social tensions that are likely to occur.

Speaker

Steve Johnson holds a PhD in Math from Columbia University. He spent 20 years working at Bell Labs as researcher and manager, part of the team that built Unix, contributing programs like Yacc, Lint and the Portable C Compiler. Steve came to California in 1986, and has worked at Ardent, Transmeta, and The MathWorks (in MA). Currently, he is the chief software architect at Wave Computing, an AI systems company.

Café Scientifique

Café Scientifique is a place where anyone can come to explore the latest ideas in science and technology. The Café provides a forum for debating science issues outside a traditional academic context. We are committed to promoting public engagement with science and to making science accountable - all spoken in plain English. There is no admission charge to attend our events. Building on its great success outside the United States, Café Scientifique Silicon Valley is the first such Café on the West Coast. We meet monthly to discuss a variety of science topics.

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