Friday 9th of February 12.15-13:00 At MIT.A.216 and on Zoom (registration required for Zoom link)
On the 9th of February, TAIGA – Centre for Transdisciplinary AI invites you to a talk on “AI and the written word” held by Thomas Hellström, Umeå University. The talk is a part of TAIGA’s seminar series #frAIday on different perspectives of AI.
Abstract
The recent advancements in chatbots driven by Large Language Models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT, have shaken the foundations of how text is created. This already affects the demand for human-generated writing, which in the long run may affect human writing capabilities. Our appreciation of the human skill of writing will certainly also be affected, in the same way as mental arithmetic skills were reevaluated when calculators were introduced. The way we teach and use writing in educational settings will also change in many ways – but how?
By 2026, it is projected that at least 90% of all content on the Internet will be created by computers. As we know, such content can be both intentionally and unintentionally wrong – so how will this affect our faith in the written word? In this talk, I will explore these issues, and where it leaves humanity. Will we surrender to AI, or is there still hope for human writing? Are there still things that computers can’t do (or even write about)?
Thomas Hellström is a professor at the Department of Computer Science at Umeå University and leads the Intelligent Robotics group. His research focuses on the use of AI for the development of robots for social and industrial applications. A main track of the research is human-robot interaction (HRI). He has coordinated several EU projects, including INTRO and SOCRATES, which focused on intelligent robots and social robotics. Hellström has also contributed to research in field robotics, with a particular focus on unmanned forest vehicles and the development of robots for harvesting. He has published work on robot ethics and justice aspects of machine learning, and contributes to the public debate on artificial intelligence.
For more information about the event and registration, see [here].