Probus Talk – Developments in Artificial Intelligence

The Chairman formally welcomed and introduced the guest speaker, Professor Dan Remenyl whose talk was both interesting and informative. His subject was recent developments in Artificial Intelligence (AI) .

Professor Remenyi has spent many years in a variety of academic roles, including at the Henley Management Collect and the University of Reading. He has a long interest in AI. One recent development is AI-Chatbots, which is the subject of research in many universities and companies, but the topic has become of serious concern because alongside the many benefits are deep concerns.

In essence, Chatbot is where computers communicate in everyday languages and their response will be oral of verbal, after the computers have undergone their own reasoning based on what their will have learned or deducted. This facility might have benefits in commerce and industry but may have be at variance with what the human operators would have expected.

Thus, computers may ‘take-over’ to some extent. The high-performance computing technology of today and the intrusion of the internet in all our lives is accelerating the effectiveness of AI. Chatbot can provide information on any topic and it can be wrong. Chatbot could exaggerate and it could therefore create dangers. Information could be false or contributing to a crime.

The biggest worry is that computers could become independent of humans, run out of control and protect themselves from restraint. Many senior individuals are saying that AI-Chatbot research and development should be paused to establish rules and regulations.

Henley Probus meets at Badgemore Park on the second Tuesday of each month; it starts with an informal gathering of its members (plus Visitors) for a discussion and coffee, with the formal meeting commencing at 1130 followed by a lunch. Each meeting normally includes a presentation from a guest speaker.

If anyone is interested in joining the Club, please make themselves known to Roger Griffiths our Membership Secretary (01491575137/email regriffiths@waitrose.com) or to any Club member that you may know.