Ready to go on a trip? A wild and strange trip without ever leaving your seat? If you’re ready to go, TEDxNavesink 2015 speakers Drs. Chris Welty and Lora Aroyo are ready to take you.
Well, it’s not actually that black and white, as Chris and Lora will explain during their talk, “To be AND not to be: quantum intelligence.” Lucky TEDxNavesink participants will get a scoop from these two speakers on April 11. Their talk will be the first of its kind, introducing a new idea that could change the field of computer science forever, as well as the way the public interacts with its technology. (Which is why you should get your tickets now!).
Chris and Lora work in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and share a passion for making connections between things that may seem unrelated. The two began to make connections between how members of the general public view things in contrast with how an expert in a field may view things. So they proposed a new Theory of Truth for the industry.
“Before our theory, everyone in the research community took it for granted that ‘true and false’ were sufficient for understanding the world, and for machines that interact with people,” they said. “We passionately believe that fundamental changes are needed for developing technology for helping us adequately in our daily lives.”
Like I said, it’s not that black and white.
This means that the pair is trying to persuade the Artificial Intelligence community that it’s important for these machines that interact with us in our daily lives to know what is right, what is wrong, and the difference between the two. Until recently, Artificial Intelligence, the technology that drives the next generation of “cognitive digital assistants” like Google Now and Siri, has been based on the idea that statements and beliefs are either true or false. But Lora and Chris know the world isn’t as cut and dry, and that this true and false set of alternatives is too simplistic.
“As AI moves out of the lab and into our pockets, some seemingly obvious realizations, like “true and false is just too simplistic,” are significant game changers,” the two said.
But Chris and Lora want people to think beyond this.
“Thinking about how work in quantum physics can help actually change the game is both a game changer and an accelerator,” said Chris and Lora, speaking to the theme of TEDxNavesink.
Chris is a senior research scientist at Google, and was part of the leadership team for IBM Watson’s Jeopardy! Challenge. He has been a leading researcher in machine intelligence for over 25 years, and one of the founders of the Semantic Web movement and most recently, Cognitive Computing. Chris is a graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the Endowed Professor of Cognitive Computing at the VU University in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Lora is an associate professor of computer science at VU University in Amsterdam, Netherlands, where she heads the web and media group. She is also the chief technology officer of New York’s Tagasauris, Inc., where she makes media content more accessible and discoverable using crowdsourcing. She is an internationally known expert in multimedia interaction, and led the European NoTube project, developing new “second screen” applications for discovering and sharing TV experiences online within social circles. Lora worked for the Watson team in 2012 after the famous Jeopardy! showdown.
Watson, an artificially intelligent computer system developed by IBM specifically designed to answer questions on the quiz show Jeopardy!, competing against former winners on the show in 2011. Watson won. After the appearance on Jeopardy!, Watson was being adapted to be relevant to other fields, including medicine. Lora convinced the team working on this feat that it was important for Watson to know about the shades of grey between right and wrong.
Their combined experience in the world of computer science, including personalization and human-computer interaction, natural language processing and AI, allow Chris and Lora to create connections and derive disruptive new approaches that can make a difference. “Whether it’s finding the best TV show to watch with your friends, or diagnosing a strange set of medical symptoms,” the pair passionately communicate their ideas about how AI and human interaction can meld in our daily lives.
Chris and Lora are already hard at work spreading their ideas, regularly giving talks, writing papers in peer-reviewed publications, and remaining active on social media. But they don’t stop at the obvious channels when communicating their ideas. They branch out into other domains, such as medicine and cultural heritage, to demonstrate the effectiveness of their approach and show theoretical results in developing systems and unique solutions to existing problems. So a TEDx talk is right up their alley, and they’re using the TEDxNavesink platform to introduce their game-changing idea to the public.
“It will be the first time anyone has heard of the idea of quantum intelligence for cognitive systems, and we think it will be as important to AI as quantum mechanics first was to physics,” they said.
But what can TEDxNavesink do for Lora and Chris? Well for starters, preparation for their talk has forced them to think about how to concisely communicate these advanced, complex ideas.
“The audience, format, and style of TEDx is forcing us to simplify and crystalize the message so that it is clear to a larger and broader audience,” the two said.
Our lives are increasingly becoming saturated with technology, and that technology is changing and adapting each day. AI plays a crucial role in the way we go about our day-to-day lives, helping manage and search for information.
“We hope the audiences will see that there is an obstacle to making these AI systems of more use to us,” Chris and Lora said. “Borrowing ideas from psychology and quantum mechanics can remove this obstacle and deliver assistants that can understand, and therefore help us better.”
Make sure you get your seat to hear this groundbreaking, first of its kind talk. TEDxNavesink 2015 tickets are on sale now, and they’re going fast. Don’t miss out, get yours today! Click here.
Stephanie Eichmeyer is a content production and marketing specialist for the TEDxNavesink team. She is currently pursuing a master’s degree in communication from Monmouth University. Stephanie has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia and has worked in journalism and PR for many years.