Media Invite: The future of AI and what it means for humans

Technology is the changing the way we live and work. For centuries, being human has been described by emphasizing the ability to think and reason. But now technology innovation using Artificial Intelligence (AI) can help us mimic human-like behavior to make complicated decisions and solve world problems.

Virginia Tech’s Innovation Campus in Alexandria will focus on the intersection between technology and the human experience, leading the way not just in technical domains but also looking at the policy and ethical implications to ensure that technology doesn’t drive inequity.

What will it mean to be human as intelligent machines continue to advance? How is AI improving our lives? What are the dangers that more powerful AI might bring?

In this talk, Virginia Tech humanities scholar Sylvester Johnson and computer scientist Kurt Luther will share recent discoveries and explore how the latest technological advances in AI are changing our lives.

When: Thursday, October 17 from 12 noon – 1 p.m. (doors open at 11:30 a.m.)

Where: Virginia Tech Research Center
900 North Glebe Road - 2nd Floor
Arlington, VA  22203

Boxed lunches will be provided.

RSVP by October 11 to Shannon Andrea in the Virginia Tech media relations office at 571-858-3262 or sandrea@vt.edu.

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Sylvester Johnson
Johnson, the founding director of the Virginia Tech Center for Humanities, is a nationally recognized humanities scholar specializing in the study of technology, race, religion, and national security. He is also assistant vice provost for the humanities at Virginia Tech and executive director of the university’s Tech for Humanity initiative. His award-winning scholarship is advancing new approaches to understanding the human condition and social institutions of power in an age of intelligent machines and other forms of technology innovation. More here.

Kurt Luther
Luther is an assistant professor of computer science at Virginia Tech, where he directs the Crowd Intelligence Lab. He is also a fellow of the Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology and a faculty affiliate of the Center for Human-Computer Interaction, the Hume Center for National Security and Technology, and the Information, Trust, and Society Initiative. His research uses AI-based facial recognition technology and crowdsourcing to verify or debunk photos and videos. More here.

About the Innovation Campus
Virginia Tech announced plans to build the Innovation Campus in Alexandria as part of the tech-talent pipeline package created by the Virginia Economic Development Partnership to attract Amazon to build its HQ2 in Northern Virginia. The first class of Innovation Campus master’s degree students will enroll in the fall of 2020 in existing space adjacent to where its new academic buildings will eventually be built. When complete in about 10 years, the campus will enroll 750 master’s candidates and hundreds of doctoral students and postdoctoral fellows.

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