Four lectures on this topical and important subject are being broadcast free of charge by the Faculty of Science, University of Auckland
The 2023 Gibbons Lectures series is intended to describe ongoing research in Computer Science to a wider public, organized by Faculty of Science, University of Auckland.
Tim Gibson, Stolen Glances Studio
Thursday 11 May, 6:30pm
Venue: Lib B15 Lecture Theatre General Library Basement, (109-B15) The University of Auckland 5 Alfred Street, Auckland CBD, register your place here.
This lecture will be available to livestream here.
Generative Artificial Intelligence like ChatGPT and its visual equivalents Dall-E, Midjourney and Stable Diffusion have shaken up the creative workforce, often producing industry level copywriting, editing, illustration and design at a fraction of the time and cost of a human worker. Their capabilities have set off a technological arm’s race at the world’s largest tech companies while simultaneously building a user base of enthusiasts faster than the most popular social media platforms.
What can Generative AI be used for, how powerful is it really, how could it be used ethically, and what impact will it have on our creative industries and the people who work for and engage with them?
What could a world look like where creativity is ‘free’?
In this talk, Tim will showcase some of the current technologies’ capabilities, the hot takes and debates from within the creative industries and attempt to predict what is next for creative Generative Artificial Intelligence.
Tim Gibson is a Creative Director, Animator and Illustrator who has worked for companies big and small across film, television, comics, branding and packaging design. His work has appeared for Garage Project, Weta Workshop, Le Monde Diplomatique, Penguin Random-House, Te Papa Tongarewa and more.
The 2023 Gibbons Lectures series is intended to describe ongoing research in Computer Science to a wider public, organized by Faculty of Science, University of Auckland.
Karaitiana Taiuru, Taiuru & Associates
Thursday 18 May, 6.30pm
Venue: Lib B15 Lecture Theatre General Library Basement, (109-B15) The University of Auckland 5 Alfred Street, Auckland CBD, register your place here.
This lecture will be available to livestream here.
Māori and indeed all indigenous peoples are on the brink of being colonised again with generative AI if they are not a part of the ethics, initial planning and decision-making processes, as beta testers, co-developers, the entire life cycle from inception to deployment and then in a monitoring capacity. The talk will then discuss the positive impacts of generative AI with te reo Māori and future considerations for Māori Peoples with generative AI in our traditional settings such as marae and pōwhiri.
Iwi affiliations include Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Toa.
Dr Karaitiana Taiuru is a future thinking leader with Te Tiriti, Māori culture, mātauranga, te ao Māori, tikanga and how those rights and beliefs are applied to the digital world and biological sciences. He is a director of his boutique research and Māori cultural advisory company Taiuru & Associates.
The 2023 Gibbons Lectures series is intended to describe ongoing research in Computer Science to a wider public, organized by Faculty of Science, University of Auckland.
Jiamou Liu, School of Computer Science, University of Auckland
Thursday 25 May, 6:30pm
Venue: Lib B15 Lecture Theatre General Library Basement, (109-B15) The University of Auckland 5 Alfred Street, Auckland CBD, register your place here.
This lecture will be available to livestream here.
Graph analysis is an increasingly important tool in modern data science, providing powerful ways to represent and analyse complex structured data. In this talk, we will discuss recent advances in graph analysis, including data mining and social network analysis, as well as the use of Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) for tasks such as node classification and link prediction. We will also explore recent techniques in contrastive learning for graphs and data augmentation for graphs, which have enabled significant improvements in the accuracy and robustness of graph-based models.
Jiamou currently holds a position as a Senior Lecturer at the School of Computer Science at The University of Auckland. Graduated with a PhD in Computer Science from the same university in 2010, he has held academic positions at institutions including the University of Leipzig in Germany and AUT in NZ. Jiamou’s research is focused on a variety of areas, including data mining, multi-agent systems, and natural language processing. His work published in prestigious venues such as NeurIPS, ICML, and ACL. He has served as a Program Committee member for leading conferences in the field, including AAAI, IJCAI, and AAMAS.
The 2023 Gibbons Lectures series is intended to describe ongoing research in Computer Science to a wider public, organized by Faculty of Science, University of Auckland.
James Maclaurin, Co-Director, Centre for AI and Public Policy, University of Otago
Thursday 1 June, 6:30pm
Venue: Lib B15 Lecture Theatre General Library Basement, (109-B15) The University of Auckland 5 Alfred Street, Auckland CBD, register your place here.
This lecture will be available to livestream here.
Recent progress in Large Language Models and tools like ChatGPT built upon them will have radical consequences for the future of life and work in Aotearoa. Some, including OpenAI who make ChatGPT, suggest this technology is now a promising route to the development of artificial general intelligence. The plausibility of such claims rests in part on whether such systems can exhibit distinctively human capacities such as belief, desire, knowledge, reasoning, and autonomy. This talk asks what philosophical analysis of such phenomena can tell us about the possibility of recreating them in software. It also discusses the utility of artificial general intelligence as a measure of our success at creating intelligent machines.
James is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Otago. His research spans the philosophy of artificial intelligence, philosophy of science, applied ethics and metaphilosophy. He has devised and co-ordinates “When Machines Decide”, a new multi-disciplinary course on the social, ethical, and legal implications of AI. James is co-director of Otago’s Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Public Policy and co-investigator on New Zealand Law Foundation-funded reports on the impact of AI on jobs and work in Aotearoa as well as government use of AI. He is co-author of A Citizen’s Guide to Artificial Intelligence with MIT Press.