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The Chip Shot, Part II: AI Undermining Reality and Threatening Our Dominance - Boca Raton

Instructor
Stephen Kowel
F11152

Course Description

Microchips power artificial intelligence that already manages much of modern life but might become so powerful that our machines become a competitive species or, perhaps, our salvation. Chips already have more transistors than we have neurons. They can network over the Internet, accessing all the data, misinformation, facts, and implicit biases accumulated by humankind. Deep fakes produce events that could never happen but look and sound real. Neural networks connecting over the Internet will have such blinding speed and complexity that they might even become conscious and thus autonomous. Dare we create such powerful artificial general intelligence when we understand so little of human intelligence? Can we put in place protections against the Singularity, a network that could arise from anywhere, anytime, deciding that it knows best how to save the planet and protect its future? Or could the Singularity be our progeny, preserving the best of human culture and eliminating the worst? Putting off procrastination is not a good strategy for dealing with essential, exponential, existential technology.  "He was a master of knowledge and. Great teacher - please have him again !!!!" - OLLI Patron

Course Info

  • Time: 12:30 PM - 2:00 PM
  • Date: Wednesday, November 15
  • Location: Lifelong Learning classrooms, Continuing Education Building
  • Fees: Member - $30
    $100 for any combination of four events, members only
    Non-member - $35
    One-time guest pass, Member or Non-member at the door - $35.

About the Instructor

  • Stephen Kowel, Ph.D., earned his doctoral degree in electrical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania. He has held faculty positions at Syracuse University, the University of California, Davis, the University of Alabama in Huntsville, and the University of Cincinnati, where he also served as dean of the College of Engineering. He has been elected a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and of the Optical Society of America (OPTICA).