Wall-E or Terminator: Predicting the Rise of AI
This fun and thought provoking session will look at fundamental issues about the rise of artificial intelligence (AI). When is human-level AI likely to emerge? When it does emerge will it be more likely to be friendly, hostile, or indifferent to humanity? What, if anything, can we do to influence these outcomes?Panelists will draw on their expert knowledge in the field as well as look at science fiction for inspiration.
Presenters
Chris is the co-founder and Chief Scientist of Parametric Marketing, a Market Research and Data Analytics company. He has had a varied carreer, ranging from building statistical models of radar to building economic models of doggie dental care.
In the 90s he lead a team researching self-modifying hardware at HP Laboratories in Bristol. As far as he knows they are still evolving.
When he's not torturing datasets Chris practices and teaches dreamwork and meditation.
At the SXSW panel he will be arguing that our own consciousness is an illusion, so why get wrapped around the axle asking whether machines are conscious? And he will ask you to consider one small question: When a robot is beating the snot out of you why pontificate on its self-awareness?
Daniel H. Wilson is the New York Times best-selling author of Robopocalypse, as well as the author of other titles such as How to Survive a Robot Uprising, Where's My Jetpack?, and A Boy and His Bot. He earned a PhD in Robotics from Carnegie Mellon University, along with a Masters degree in Artificial Intelligence. His next novel, AMPED, will be released by Doubleday on June 6th, 2012.
William Hertling is the author of two science fiction novels (Avogadro Corp: The Singularity Is Closer Than It Appears, and A.I. Apocalypse). Inspired by scifi greats such as Charles Stross and Cory Doctorow, William writes near-term stories about artificial intelligence.
His third novel, The Last Firewall, is a classic cyberpunk novel and is due out in December, 2012.
When he's not writing, he alternates between web strategy, development, and social media roles at Hewlett-Packard. Some of his more interesting projects include a recommendation engine for customer support content, a just-in-time help system that saved over $50M in support costs, and a variety of Ruby web apps.
Tuesday, March 13
