Q&A
collaborative effort between Brown University machine intelligence becomes more powerful
than human intelligence?
and Rhode Island Hospital, and will go for two I believe some of those claims are overblown.
years, with the potential for extending it two I don’t disagree that there is a debate to be had
more years. I am very excited by this project about artificial intelligence, but I think we’re far
because I believe it represents an opportunity from technological singularity.
The project started in September as a
Q&A with OSHEANCon19
Keynote Speaker:
Thomas Serre
Thomas Serre is a computational neuroscientist
specializing in visual processing, and an associate
professor of cognitive, linguistic and psychological
sciences at Brown University and an affiliate of the
Carney institute for Brain Science. Ahead of his
keynote speech at OSHEANCon19, Dr. Serre spoke
to us about his groundbreaking work in artificial
intelligence (AI), neuroscience and computer vision.
News recently broke about a $6.3-million DARPA-funded
project that you’re involved with. Can you tell us about the
work being done with that group?
This is a high-risk, high-reward project led by Professor
to expand the limits of AI and the knowledge
we have of neural circuits.
Communication between brains and computers
is not completely impossible, but we are pretty
How long have you been teaching at Brown far away from achieving that. I also think we are
University? very far from AI taking control of humankind.
I’ve been at Brown University for almost 10 I feel we’re at a similar turning point as the
years, although I’ve been on sabbatical since turn of the Industrial Revolution, when more
the spring. I’m actively working to promote automated machinery changed the way manual
the use of computational methods within labor was used.
biological sciences. I am the Faculty
Director for the Center for Computation and There are important questions to be asked such
Visualization and the Associate Director for as what are the main changes we will see in
the Computation in Brain and Mind Initiative the economy, how will education change, etc.
within the Carney Institute for Brain Science. The concern at this point is not AI taking over
I’m also involved in the Artificial and Natural humans, but ensuring that we are adequately
Intelligence Toulouse Institute (ANITI) in prepared for the next big revolution.
France, where I was awarded an International
Chair in AI. I am working to demonstrate that
neuroscience is a good source of inspiration
for those entrenched in AI.
Can you share what you plan to talk about
at OSHEANCon?
I’m looking forward to sharing the amazing
amount of progress that has taken place in
David Borton. It involves the development and testing of an
“intelligent spinal interface” aimed at helping to restore limb I try to promote my passions around computer vision powered by modern deep
movement and bladder control for people who have suffered neuroscience, machine learning, computational neural networks. To that end, I plan to highlight
spinal cord injuries. The idea is to record signals traveling modeling, machine and biological vision, and how progress in the field has taken shape in the
down the spinal cord above an injury site and use them to AI in the two courses I teach per year to my past decade. I’ll also demonstrate how it is now
drive electrical spinal stimulation below the lesion. At the students. possible for computer vision algorithms
to outperform humans in some tasks.
same time, information coming up the cord from below will
be used to drive stimulation above the injury. The device
could potentially help to restore both volitional control
of limb muscles as well as feeling and sensation lost due
What do you have to say to people who are
concerned with the prospect of what is called
“technological singularity”—the point when
I am also planning to highlight the many
limitations of modern computer vision
to injury.
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Stronger Together
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