Prof. Dr. Patrick H. Winston
The Thinking Machine:
From Wild Dreams to High-Impact Applications and Exciting Science
SHORTER ABSTRACT
Artificial Intelligence technology has already been put to work in
applications ranging from airport managment to reality-enhanced imagry for
surgeons. Professor Winston will discuss how new, scientifically exciting
ideas, now in the laboratory, will enable a host of new products, such as
rationally designed drugs, lightweight structures with active beams,
miniature displays that enhance visual reality, and information systems
that intelligently connect knowledge seekers with knowledge sources on the
world-wide web.
LONGER ABSTRACT
During the dawn age of artificial-intelligence research, visionaries
predicted a time when AI-enabled systems would revolutionize work and
recreation. Today, some of those early predictions seem premature, but
nevertheless, AI-enabled systems have begun, inconspicuously, to help
people do important work that unassisted human workers cannot do alone.
One such system saves \$100,000 per day in jet fuel at a large U. S.
airport. Another helps genetic councilors to provide high-quality advice
to prospective parents.
What's on the horizon? New ideas are advancing the state of the art
rapidly, fueling today's dreams of rational drug design systems,
lightweight bridges with active beams, glasses that enhance reality for
brain surgeons, and information systems that intelligently connect
knowledge seekers with knowledge sources on the world-wide web.
In his talk, Professor Winston will describe a representative sample of the
new ideas that enable today's dreams, and he will show several videos that
demonstrate how those dreams are becoming reality.