Events & News
Colloquium
| Category | Lecture |
| Date | Thursday, October 15, 2009 |
| Time | 11:00 am |
| Location | GS 906 |
| Details | Light refreshments - 9th floor Atrium - 10:45 am |
| Speaker | Dr. Paul Cohen |
| Title | Professor and Head - Department of Computer Science, SISTA |
| Affiliation | University of Arizona |
Against Sophistication: In Pursuit of Complete Intelligence
Abstract: Artificial Intelligence is drunk on performing hard tasks at high levels. Given a choice between power and generality, most of us choose power. Our programs depend on designed exploits, or on designed search spaces in which programs can learn exploits. Divide-and-conquer, specific function, power over generality, and exploits are valuable engineering methods in many disciplines. They are apt to build machines that do one thing well. Human intelligence isn't that kind of machine. Fixing the current situation will require a disciplined stand against sophistication. It will require investments in general, child-like intelligence, and the investors might not see a return --- high performance from cognitive systems --- for some time. I will illustrate these points and the pursuit of child-like intelligence with lessons from our Wubble World project, in which softbots try to learn natural language by interacting with human players.
Biography
Bio: Paul Cohen is a professor of Computer Science at UA. His research is in artificial intelligence and cognitive science, specifically machine learning, data mining, planning, and cognitive developmental robotics. Cohen's PhD in Computer Science and Psychology is from Stanford. He was at UMass, Amherst and USC's Information Sciences Institute before joining the UA in 2008.