• Speaker: Eric Horvitz, Chief Scientific Officer, Microsoft
• Moderator: Moshe Y. Vardi, Rice University, USA

Abstract

Surprising advances in machine learning over the last decade have provided breakthrough capabilities across a spectrum of long-term AI aspirations — and more breakthroughs are coming our way. Possibilities for achieving new forms of automation and human augmentation have captured the imagination of people and organizations across the world. However, exuberance with AI technologies is tempered by concerns about potential costs, rough edges, and downsides of applications of AI, including challenges with reliability and safety, equity, economics, civil liberties, democracy, and human agency. I will share reflections on AI responsibilities and governance across multiple sectors with a focus on corporate responsibilities.

About Eric Horvitz

Eric Horvitz is the Chief Scientific Officer of Microsoft. His research has centered on challenges with machine learning, reasoning, and action amidst the uncertainties and complexities of the open world. His efforts and collaborations have included the fielding of AI technologies in healthcare, transportation, aerospace, and computing applications and services. His contributions to AI have been recognized with several honors, including the Feigenbaum Prize and the Allen Newell Prize. As chair of Microsoft’s Aether effort, he has been an architect of the company’s approach to the responsible development and fielding of AI systems. He is a member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). He was a Commissioner on the National Security Commission on AI, where he chaired the line of effort on Ethical and Responsible AI. He served as president of the AAAI and on advisory boards at the NSF, NIH, and U.S. Department of Defense. He co-founded the One Hundred Year Study on AI and the Partnership on AI. He has been elected a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and American Philosophical Society and fellow of the Association for the Advancement of AI (AAAI), American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). He did his doctoral work at Stanford University. Additional information and publications are available at https://erichorvitz.com/

About Moshe Y. Vardi

With over 50,000 citations, Moshe Vardi is one of the most cited computer scientists worldwide. Since 1993, Moshe Vardi has been a professor at Rice University (Texas, USA). He is a leading researcher in the field of logic applications in computer science and plays a leading role in the discussion of the role of computer science in society. The lectures and articles by Moshe Vardi on the implications of robotics and artificial intelligence (up to the question of whether intelligent robots are stealing your job) have strongly influenced public discourse. Until 2017, he served as Editor‐in‐Chief of Communications of the ACM (CACM). Moshe Y. Vardi studied Physics and Computer Science at BarIlan University and at Weizmann Institute. He received his doctorate from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem (Israel). He spent several years in various positions at top institutions such as the Hebrew University, Stanford University and the IBM Research Center in San Jose (USA). More details at https://www.cs.rice.edu/~vardi/

Online Event

We are looking forward to seeing you:

• Participate via Zoom (meeting: 9638 9928 143, password: 0dzqxqiy).
• The talk will also be live streamed and recorded on our YouTube Channel.
• For further announcements and information, please visit the DIGHUM Website, which also provides slides and recordings of all our past events.

The DIGHUM Lecture Series

Digital Humanism deals with the complex relationship between man and machine. It acknowledges the potential of Informatics and IT. At the same time, it points to related apparent threats such as privacy violations, ethical concerns with AI, automation, and loss of jobs, and the ongoing monopolization on the Web. The Corona crisis has shown these two faces of the accelerated digitalization—we are in a crucial moment in time.

For this reason, we started the DIGHUM Lecture Series, a new initiative with regular online events to discuss the different aspects of Digital Humanism. We will have a speaker on a specific topic (30 minutes) followed by a discussion of 30 minutes every second Tuesday of each month at 5:00 PM CEST. This crisis seriously affects our mobility, but it also offers the possibility to participate in events from all over the world—let’s take this chance to meet virtually.

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