How will they impact us all? As a longtime researcher in AI, I'm excited about the ways in
which these new AI systems can improve our healthcare, education, climate and more. At the same
time, we need to think carefully about how to use them and how to prevent their misuse.
I oppose recent suggestions that we simply ban their development, but I support and participate in
efforts to anticipate their possible uses and impacts, and to help our leaders think through how
governments should react. ...
It will be useful to regulate AI, but primarily at the application level. For example, AI
applications to medical diagnosis should be regulated very differently from AI applications to
self-driving cars. Collaboration between industry, government and citizens will be essential in
developing appropriate regulations.
I am co-chairing
a task
force for the non-partisan, non-profit SCSP, to make recommendations to the
U.S. government on the technology of Large Language Models, their impact on society, and
actions the government might want to take in response.
I and all of the other past Presidents of the AAAI -- the primary professional organization
for AI -- wrote and
signed this letter.
AI will also impact jobs. For my work on this topic, see the Current Research item below
"How will AI change the future of work?"
Current Research
How can AI improve education? My thesis: this is the decade when AI will truly revolutionize
online education. Why? Because (1) for the first time we have finally have online education
sites that have taught millions of students, providing more training data showing how students
learn, than a human teacher could ever see in a 100-year teaching career, and (2) recent AI
advances in machine learning, large natural language models, and reasoning give us the right tools
to build AI agents that tutor online students. ...
Here are two problems I've been working on with my collaborators:
Tracing the knowledge state of students as they work through the online curriculum.
Learning which teaching actions work best for which students.
watch this space for upcoming publications...
How does the brain represent language meaning? We collect images of brain activity while
human subjects read text, then use machine learning to analyze how observed brain activity
represents language meaning. ...
How will AI change the future of work? I co-chaired a U.S. National Academy study on this
question with Erik Brynjolfsson in 2017. We are now co-chairing a new Congressionally-mandated
follow on study, due out in 2023.
...
