On January 28, “Frontiers of Science” was hosted by the Northern California Chapter of ARCS Foundation in Byers Auditorium, Mission Bay Campus of UCSF. The event featured an interactive conversation between Dr. Jerry Kaplan, serial entrepreneur, AI guru, and Lecturer/Research Affiliate at Stanford and Mr. John Markoff, an award-winning journalist.
All of us have heard of AI – something that will change almost everything in our lives. Few of us know much about it. By “showing up” (Woody Allen said this is 90% of success), we learned the difference between AI and machine learning (ML) – AI is a complex engineered process that is more cross-disciplinary than ML which is one component of AI. We also learned that researchers are using AI to understand the mechanisms of thought and behavior, develop autonomous vehicles, map the human genome, and use robots to gain efficiency and accuracy in repetitive tasks. And we learned that AI will have effects on the workforce – something that policymakers need to anticipate with more training for AI-oriented jobs.
Their conversation was followed by a lively question and answer period – plus – in some cases - another glass of wine. The members of ARCS and their guests share an insatiable curiosity about science – and love learning. There was general agreement that the evening provided new insights and was quite enjoyable.
If you missed this one and want to learn more about ARCS, come to the 2020 Symposium on April 27th – featuring more than 70 ARCS Scholars in STEM disciplines.
