Spotlight Seminar 25th Oct 2024 – AI’s Challenge of Understanding the World

AISB/AIxIA Spotlight Seminar on AI, 25th Oct 2024

25 October 2024, 4pm (BST)

The AI*IA, in collaboration with the Society for the Study of Artificial Intelligence and Simulation of Behaviour (AISB), UK, is pleased to announce the first of the Winter 2024 seminars.

AI’s Challenge of Understanding the World

The seminar will be held by Melanie Mitchell and will be available for streaming on the YouTube channel of AIxIA at https://www.youtube.com/c/AIxIAit.

Abstract

I will survey a debate in the artificial intelligence (AI) research community on the extent to which current AI systems can be said to “understand” language and the physical and social situations language encodes. I will describe arguments that have been made for and against such understanding, hypothesize about what humanlike understanding entails, and discuss what methods can be used to fairly evaluate understanding and intelligence in AI systems.

Short Bio

Melanie Mitchell is Professor at the Santa Fe Institute. Her current research focuses on conceptual abstraction and analogy-making in artificial intelligence systems. Melanie is the author or editor of six books and numerous scholarly papers in the fields of artificial intelligence, cognitive science, and complex systems. Her 2009 book Complexity: A Guided Tour (Oxford University Press) won the 2010 Phi Beta Kappa Science Book Award, and her 2019 book Artificial Intelligence: A Guide for Thinking Humans (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux) was shortlisted for the 2023 Cosmos Prize for Scientific Writing.

AISB/AI*IA Spotlight Seminars

The aim of the seminars is to illustrate, explore and discuss current scientific challenges, trends, and possibilities in all branches of our articulated research field. The seminars will be held virtually (https://www.youtube.com/c/AIxIAit), on a monthly basis, by leading Italian researchers as well as by top international scientists. The seminars are mainly aimed at a broad audience interested in AI research, and they are also included in the Italian PhD programme in Artificial Intelligence; indeed, AIxIA warmly encourages the attendance of young scientists and PhD students.