Lecture Series 4 - Intelligent Machines: Are We Ready?

 Robots and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are already having a major impact on our lives. Lecturers in this series will give their professional perspectives on what we can expect today and in the future.

Series Cordinators: Joan Irvine, Carol Mair,

Gord Edwards, Lynne Celhoffer, Bill Celhoffer

03/03/2022 to 04/07/2022

$40.00

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03/03/2022 - AI and Labour: A Fruitful Partnership or the Next Great Depression?

This talk will review the economic challenges and the promises of the emerging AI revolution. How will the rise of intelligent machines change the economy, the sorts of jobs that are available, and how wealth is distributed among us? Have governments learned from the last great wave of automation, or will laissez-faire economic policies rule the day? Or is all of this just Silicon Valley driven technological hype?  

Michael L. Anderson, Ph.D., is the Rotman Canada Research Chair in Philosophy of Science at the University of Western Ontario. He studies the functional structure of the brain, networks, neural reuse, network theory, and the various ways we have to begin to think about the brain if we are ever going to understand it.

03/10/2022 - Artificial Intelligence and the Augmented Human Experience

In this lecture I will discuss our accelerating pursuit of artificial intelligence and its increasing impact on science and society.  I will focus in particular on the consequences of this technology on the future of our own human experience, and what our species may look like as artificial intelligence increasingly becomes a part of our everyday lives.

 

Dr. Roger Melko is a theoretical physicist.  He is a professor at the University of Waterloo and the Perimeter Institute, which is a major centre for physics research, focused on new, mind-bending ideas about the ultimate nature of our universe, from space and time to matter and information.

 

03/17/2022 - Trends in Big Data: What You Need to Know

Big Data is everywhere. Should we be worried? This lecture will take you for a walk through the recent trends in Big Data and how big corporations are using your data.

 

Chris Dyck has been managing information for over 25 years. He founded a company early in his career that revolutionized electronic publishing and ushered in a new era of eBook publishing. Chris has recently focused on education where he built a top-in-class post-graduate certificate program and managed over 300 research and development projects for those students.

 

03/24/2022 - Social Impact of Emergent Embodied Computing

More and more, personal digital devices—from wearable brain-computers to digital skin tech to implanted computer chips—are being invented, adopted and even celebrated before we have a chance to understand their likely impact on our lives. The rise of Artificial Intelligence is accelerating this process. Pedersen explores how immersive embodied technology may change how we act, interact with others, participate in cultures, and understand our identities.

Isabel Pedersen, Canada Research Chair in Digital Life, Media and Culture, is also Professor of Communication Studies at Ontario Tech University.  Her recent books include Embodied Computing Wearables, Implantables, Embeddables, Ingestibles (MIT Press, 2020, co-edited with Andrew Iliadis) and Writing Futures: Collaborative, Algorithmic, Autonomous (Springer, 2021, co-authored with Ann Hill Duin). She is Director of Digital Life Institute, and lead for the AI and Social Implications cluster at the Institute.

 

03/31/2022 - Virtual Care - The Past, Present and Future 

This talk highlights the work of Geoffrey Hinton, based in Toronto and considered the godfather of Deep Learning. Adam will look at what Hinton has taught us about the learning power of machines, and how these machines are learning to do things like read X-rays, improve diagnostic accuracy and digitally summarize physician-patient interactions. Looking ahead, how will AI and technology continue to change the delivery of health care?

Dr. Adam Kassam works as a physiatrist and clinical associate at Runnymede Healthcare Centre and Athlete’s Care in Toronto. His clinical practice focuses on musculoskeletal and neurological rehabilitation, and he also serves as a faculty lecturer in the Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto.

Born and raised in Toronto, the son of a Kenyan mother and Tanzanian father, Dr. Kassam was the first in his immediate family to graduate from university and become a doctor. Dr. Kassam is the youngest person ever to be elected as president of the Ontario Medical Association and is the first Ismaili Muslim and first physiatrist in this role.

04/07/2022 - ** Can Robots Invade Your Privacy ?  ** NOT AVAILABLE -**

Unfortunately this lecture cannot be presented at this time and it is not possible to re-schedule it.  Instead, BALL will be presenting a substitute lecture "The Geo-Politics of the War in Ukraine and its Aftermath" with Dr. Michael Johns.  Those who have purchased tickets for this lecture series will be able to use the same Zoom link to attend Dr. Johns' presentation.  For more details, click on the Lectures tab

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