In his talk Professor Simon Thompson will reflect on the history of AI, its fundamental ideas, and its successes and failures.
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Synopsis
Since long before the advent of computers, people have dreamed about, and built, machines that embody aspects of human intelligence and behaviour. Now we seem to be faced with computer systems, ChatGPT among then, that do precisely that. In his talk, the speaker will reflect on the history of AI, its fundamental ideas, and its successes and failures. While he takes a sceptical view of the current hype around AI, he will aim to explain how it is likely to turn out in practice, and try to see what we might expect to be coming next. He will conclude by looking at the implications that “generative” AI tools like ChatGPT have for software development, and for universities and their students and staff.
About the speaker
Simon Thompson
Simon Thompson is Professor of Computing at the University of Kent, and Eötvös Loránd University Budapest, as well as consulting in the private sector. His research covers programming languages, program refactoring and verification. He is not an expert in AI, and will welcome discussion points from the audience.
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