Prof. Dr. Patrick H. Winston

Director, Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA

The Thinking Machine: From Wild Dreams to High-Impact Applications and Exciting Science

SHORTER ABSTRACT

Artificial Intelligence technology has already been put to work in applications ranging from airport managment to reality-enhanced imagry for surgeons. Professor Winston will discuss how new, scientifically exciting ideas, now in the laboratory, will enable a host of new products, such as rationally designed drugs, lightweight structures with active beams, miniature displays that enhance visual reality, and information systems that intelligently connect knowledge seekers with knowledge sources on the world-wide web.

LONGER ABSTRACT

During the dawn age of artificial-intelligence research, visionaries predicted a time when AI-enabled systems would revolutionize work and recreation. Today, some of those early predictions seem premature, but nevertheless, AI-enabled systems have begun, inconspicuously, to help people do important work that unassisted human workers cannot do alone. One such system saves \$100,000 per day in jet fuel at a large U. S. airport. Another helps genetic councilors to provide high-quality advice to prospective parents.

What's on the horizon? New ideas are advancing the state of the art rapidly, fueling today's dreams of rational drug design systems, lightweight bridges with active beams, glasses that enhance reality for brain surgeons, and information systems that intelligently connect knowledge seekers with knowledge sources on the world-wide web.

In his talk, Professor Winston will describe a representative sample of the new ideas that enable today's dreams, and he will show several videos that demonstrate how those dreams are becoming reality.