by Angela Guess
Tom Abate reports on Stanford News, “As artificial intelligence emerges from science fiction to everyday life, the power to shape and direct this world-changing technology remains within society’s reach. That overarching theme animated a crowd of more than 300 people at a Stanford event Thursday evening. The discussion was titled, ‘The Future of Artificial Intelligence: Emerging Topics and Societal Benefit. The four-hour-long discussion featured 15 speakers from government and academia, and was one of many tech-orients events being held on the Stanford campus this week as part of a Global Entrepreneurship Summit, hosted by the United States government. The summit includes a scheduled Friday morning appearance by President Barack Obama.”
Abate goes on, “The Future of AI panel was co-chaired by Stanford faculty members Russ Altman, a professor of bioengineering and medicine, and Fei-Fei Li, an associate professor of computer science… [Keynote speaker Megan] Smith touched on how government is using artificial intelligence, machine learning and similar techniques in tasks ranging from planning space missions to forecasting job growth. But given the potential effects of these technologies on culture and the economy, she said government’s larger challenge is to bring ‘humanity’s greatest talent’ to bear on the development and direction of AI by throwing open the discussion. ‘How are we going to make sure we are bringing everyone into this conversation?’ Smith asked, previewing an initiative that the White House is expected to formally announce Monday that will offer literally anyone a way to register an opinion or view on this emerging technology.”
Photo credit: Flickr/ NASA Goddard Photo and Video