Artificial Intelligence, Automation, and Robotics

When technology develops to the point where real-world applications start to have an impact, it usually ends up in front of Congress for a hearing. This shows everyone that Congress is paying attention to cutting-edge issues and it plays an important role in helping to define Federal interests and necessary action. The first ever Congressional hearing on artificial intelligence was held  November 30, 2016 by the Commerce, Science, and Transportation subcommittee. AI Hearing The Federal government has some key objectives relative to AI: 1) Make sure that the U.S. is able to take competitive advantage of the technology. We hate to get behind in anything since 1957. 2) Related to #1--remove any unintentional barriers that hinder the new technology from being implemented. 3) Opposite to #2--make sure we properly limit/regulate/address negative consequences of the new technology through the establishment of new policy Alice Bean should weigh in on how the Federal government i...

A lot of recent media reports have been highlighting negative impacts of artificial intelligence systems on society (loss of jobs, super AI, killer robots). Those things certainly get your attention. However a new report (March 2017) by the Computing Community Consortium describes the potential benefits of AI. " Artificial Intelligence for Social Good " is a summary of a workshop that was held last year with examples of the promise of AI in urban computing, sustainability, health care, and public welfare. The report describes current case study examples and offers tantalizing glimpses of a rosy future--"The easier it becomes for people to move about, the more vibrant our urban areas will be; likewise, the more fruitful the social and economic interactions that take place inside them will be." Really? Sorry, I am a skeptic. How do I get from self-driving Uber to more equitable access to transportation in urban areas? How does easier access to transportation lead ...

What:  Six short, interactive presentations on AI impacts from KU speakers in a variety of fields. When: 10 a.m. to Noon, Friday August 12, 2017 Where: The Commons on KU's Lawrence Campus Stay tuned - Program details to be announced.

Interesting series this week on NPR's Marketplace with David Brancaccio about jobs that may be "robot-proof." NPR Marketplace Robot-Proof Jobs He traveled around the country interviewing people that are doing tasks that will be hard to automate (like music composer for example). His background information was drawn from the McKinsey report on potential for automation. This is a work in progress and the page has links to Tableau datasets and a cool "suitable for framing" poster of jobs and automation. McKinsey Global Report Bottomline: McKinsey suggests about 45% of paid job functions could be replaced by AI/robotics technology that is available today. They note that about 60% of occupations will likely see some amount of AI/robotic impact. So at the end of this morning's NPR segment, Brancaccio mentioned an interesting concept--since people won't be able to be paid for their work we will all need to own a robot or two that will work for us and...

Who:  Dr. Michael Hsio, Professor, IEEE Fellow, Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Virginia Tech What:  Presentation - Design Automation Meets Artificial Intelligence Where: Room 246 Nichols Hall, KU West Campus When: 2:00 p.m. Monday, May 1 Why:  Refreshments will be served Abstract: Electronic Design Automation (EDA) has been around for more than half a century. They have brought us tools that range from analyzing circuits to performing circuit optimization, verification and synthesis.  In all the EDA tasks, formal methods have played a major role in realizing the automation goals. Artificial intelligence (AI), on the other hand, have played limited roles. With the recent advances in AI, the potential of EDA can be seen in a new light. Not only can it realize what humans can do, it can probably and most likely also accomplish what humans cannot, such as automatically designing bug-free, functionally correct hardware and software from a...