ITAC Tech Talk: Artificial Intelligence

This Thursday, two experts will share thoughts and insights on artificial intelligence and its relation to fake news and microchips.

Harvard Professor Gu-Yeon Wei will discuss “deep learning”—machines solving problems and making predictions by identifying patterns and sifting through massive amounts of data— and how its being incorporated into everyday technology.

Then, AI researcher and founder of News-to-US, Dr. Bryan Loyall will turn our attention to how modern technology influences news consumption in his talk, Misinformation, Disinformation and Fake News — The shape of the problem and why it is likely to get worse before it gets better. Fake news, misinformation and disinformation came to many people’s attention during the 2016 presidential election, but it has not gone away now that the election is over. Rather, it has arguably gotten worse, and many of the fundamentals in the technology and societal landscape that enabled it to emerge at such a large scale remain in place. In this talk we will discuss what we know about misinformation in the modern technology and societal landscape.

Gu-Yeon Wei is Robert and Suzanne Case Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in the Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) at Harvard University.
Bryan Loyall, Ph.D. is technologist, researcher and entrepreneur who first focused on the accelerating misinformation problem in 2007.

Sponsored by the Belmont Information Technology Advisory Committee, the Belmont Public Library and Library Friends.