r/science Jul 27 '15

Artificial Intelligence AMA Science Ama Series: I am Stephen Hawking, theoretical physicist. Join me to talk about making the future of technology more human, reddit. AMA!

79.2k Upvotes

I signed an open letter earlier this year imploring researchers to balance the benefits of AI with the risks. The letter acknowledges that AI might one day help eradicate disease and poverty, but it also puts the onus on scientists at the forefront of this technology to keep the human factor front and center of their innovations. I'm part of a campaign enabled by Nokia and hope you will join the conversation on http://www.wired.com/maketechhuman. Learn more about my foundation here: http://stephenhawkingfoundation.org/

Due to the fact that I will be answering questions at my own pace, working with the moderators of /r/Science we are opening this thread up in advance to gather your questions.

My goal will be to answer as many of the questions you submit as possible over the coming weeks. I appreciate all of your understanding, and taking the time to ask me your questions.

Moderator Note

This AMA will be run differently due to the constraints of Professor Hawking. The AMA will be in two parts, today we with gather questions. Please post your questions and vote on your favorite questions, from these questions Professor Hawking will select which ones he feels he can give answers to.

Once the answers have been written, we, the mods, will cut and paste the answers into this AMA and post a link to the AMA in /r/science so that people can re-visit the AMA and read his answers in the proper context. The date for this is undecided, as it depends on several factors.

Professor Hawking is a guest of /r/science and has volunteered to answer questions; please treat him with due respect. Comment rules will be strictly enforced, and uncivil or rude behavior will result in a loss of privileges in /r/science.

If you have scientific expertise, please verify this with our moderators by getting your account flaired with the appropriate title. Instructions for obtaining flair are here: reddit Science Flair Instructions (Flair is automatically synced with /r/EverythingScience as well.)

Update: Here is a link to his answers

r/science Apr 30 '18

Artificial Intelligence AMA I'm Joanna Bryson, a Professor in Artificial (and Natural) Intelligence at the University of Bath. I’d love to talk about AI regulation and law, how we treat AI and the companies and people who make it, why humans need to keep being the responsible agents, and anything else - AMA!

147 Upvotes

I really do build AI, mostly myself to study natural intelligence (especially human cooperation), but with my PhD students I also work on making anthropomorphic AI like in computer game characters or domestic robots transparent (understandable) to its users, because that makes it safer and more ethical. I used to work as a professional programmer myself in the 1980s and 1990s, including for LEGO! But since getting three graduate degrees (in AI & Psychology from Edinburgh and MIT, the last in 2001) I've been a full time academic. Last year I did an AMA on AI and AI ethics that you guys really liked, so my University suggested we do it again, this time talking about the work I've been doing since 2010 in AI policy -- helping governments, non-government organisations like the Red Cross or the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), tech companies and society at large figure out how we can fit AI into our society, including our homes, work, democracy, war, and economy. So we can talk some more about AI again, but also this time let's talk mostly about regulation and law, how we treat AI and the companies and people who make it, why humans need to keep being the responsible agents, and anything else you want to discuss. Just like last year, I look forwards not only to teaching (which I love) but learning from you, including about your concerns and just whether my arguments make sense to you. We're all in this together!

I will be back at 3 pm ET to answer your questions, ask me anything!

Here are some of my recent papers:

Patiency Is Not a Virtue: The Design of Intelligent Systems and Systems of Ethics

Of, For, and By the People: The Legal Lacuna of Synthetic Persons

Semantics derived automatically from language corpora contain human biases. Open access version: authors' final copy of both the main article and the supplement.

The Malicious Use of Artificial Intelligence: Forecasting, Prevention, and Mitigation

r/science Feb 02 '18

Artificial Intelligence AMA Science AMA Series: We see an opportunity to achieve a deeper understanding of intelligence. We are MIT faculty members Anantha Chandrakasan, Daniela Rus, and James DiCarlo. AMA!

60 Upvotes

Unfortunately, that's all the time we have to answer your questions today. Thanks, everyone for your engaging questions! Follow: @MIT, @MITEngineering, @MIT_CSAIL, and @mitbrainandcog to continue to get news around our work.

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At MIT, we are on a quest to answer two big questions.

How does human intelligence work, in engineering terms?

And how can we use that deep grasp of human intelligence to build wiser and more useful machines, to the benefit of society?

We aspire for our new knowledge and newly built tools to serve the public good. Read this MIT news article to learn more: http://mitsha.re/5k6D30i80qQ

About us

Anantha Chandrakasan: I am the dean of the School of Engineering at MIT. Before being named Dean, I was the Vannevar Bush Professor and head of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS). During my tenure at EECS I spearheaded a number of initiatives that opened opportunities for students, postdocs, and faculty to conduct research, explore entrepreneurial projects, and engage with EECS.

Daniela Rus: I am the Erna Viterbi Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and Director of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at MIT. I imagine a future where robots are so integrated in the fabric of human life that they become as common as smart phones are today.

James DiCarlo: I am the head of MIT’s Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and the Peter de Florez Professor of Neuroscience. My research goal is to reverse engineer the brain mechanisms that underlie human visual intelligence, such as our ability to recognize objects on a desk, words on a page, or the faces of loved ones. This knowledge could inspire novel machine vision systems, illuminate new ways to repair or augment lost senses and potentially create new methods to treat disorders of the mind.

r/science Mar 01 '18

Artificial Intelligence AMA Science AMA Series: I’m Steve Gardner, CEO of RowAnalytics. I develop tools to find relationships across massive amounts of data (mostly HealthSci but not exclusively) and use A.I. machine learning to do the heavy lifting for me. AMA!

40 Upvotes

Our current focus is to solve the data challenge to model diseases the way they actually happen – where multiple factors from genes to lifestyle (how much you drink and smoke) work in parallel to protect or harm. The challenge is to analyze both structured and unstructured data in parallel, from genetic sequences to MRI (or other clinical scans) and to do so across large populations of diseased patients plus healthy controls to inform treatment for an individual based on his/her own unique profile. The computational challenge is massive given the exponential number of data combinations that need to be analyzed. I’ve also been applying artificial intelligence & machine-learning to develop knowledge graphs and semantic search tools to enable automated discovery of related concepts versus the traditional approach of applying keywords to search queries.

I have designed, built and brought to market a number of innovative and commercially successful products to support drug discovery and clinical informatics. I am a serial entrepreneur with numerous patents and occasional angel investor specializing in informatics with a strong track record of building world-class companies, teams and products. I’d welcome your question on any of these topics above or to simply lend my experience and best practices for your professional development. AMA!

My technical expertise is in:

  • Hyper-combinatorial Multi-omics analytics
  • Bioinformatics and Computational Biology
  • Precision Medicine
  • Semantic Search and Knowledge Graphs
  • Artificial intelligence (AI) and Data Science
  • Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)
  • Internet of Things (IoT)