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Some call it intelligent, others call it automated algorithmic decision making. No matter the expression, automatization has been impacting us all for some time now. From the open-source AI tools that help combat harassment on social media, and using AI to prevent diabetes in kids, to computers outperforming doctors at reading mammograms. The potential of AI technology of making our lives better, healthier, and safer when it comes to addressing problems such as climate change, food security, migration waves, and energy supply, has already been observed.

At the same time, the matter of fact is that we live in a world where biased machines have been conducting discriminatory hiring practices. Each year millions of people die on the roads, and the development of self-driving cars has been called a moral imperative. However without any regulatory oversight, are the public roads just laboratories for collecting data and testing the technology without our consent?

How can we make sure we do not give autonomy to “stupid” AI, machines which do not know how to make good choices? How will we have a sensible democratic political debate, when human voices are silenced by the bots? What are the competencies which the society needs to foster to make our lives with AI better, not worse?

Debunking the myths and advocating regulation

On September 20^th, 2018, one of the leading researchers and an icon for regulation of Artificial Intelligence (AI), professor Toby Walsh (UNSW Sydney), has in one-hour long public debate shared the insights on how AI has been improving our lives, and why the society needs to be economically, culturally, politically, and legally prepared for the AI of tomorrow.

 The discussion with Toby Walsh was moderated by Franz Zeller (ORF).

Franz Zeller, Toby Walsh, Stefan Szeider.*

Toby Walsh has been called a “rock star of AI”, due to his regular appearances in the international media, and is an advocate for regulation in AI to ensure that automated decision making by machines is actually improving, not hurting our lives. Professor Walsh is not only known as the initiator of the worldwide movement for the UN-ban of autonomous lethal weapons (“Killer Robots”), but is also the author of numerous books presenting the general public the myths, chances, and risks in the field of artificial intelligence techniques and technology.
Open letter on autonomous weapons by the AI and robotics researchers
Professor Toby Walsh on 10 ways society will change by 2050

Video recording 

The LogicLounge with Toby Walsh on our Youtube channel.
The LogicLounge with Toby Walsh on Videolectures.net, the world’s largest online academic video repository.

The LogicLounge with Toby Walsh, moderated by Franz Zeller, recorded by Videolectures.net*

Free registration with a book giveaway

This is admission free event (free entry). For organizational reasons we kindly ask for the registration on Eventbrite. Free registration on Eventbrite may be done also under a nickname here.

Among the registered participants, who also attended the LogicLounge, Toby Walsh and Körber publishing house gave away a couple of signed copies of his book “It´s Alive: Wie künstliche Intelligenz unser Leben verändern wird“. The book, which was published in 2017, has been translated into German language and is on sale in Austria, from September 24th onwards.

The winners of the book giveaway, with Toby Walsh.*

The LogicLounge as a modern philosophical symposium

The LogicLounge since its inception at the Vienna Summer of Logic in 2014, which brought together almost 3000 scientists in the fields of logic, philosophy, mathematics, computer science, and artificial intelligence, has been continuing to bring together the general public and experts in public debates and discussions.

The LogicLounge series is organized by Vienna Center for Logic and Algorithms at TU Wien, hosted by the logic and computer science community in Austria gathered around FWF-funded Doctoral College LogiCS, to raise awareness on the impact of the research in the areas of logic, philosophy, mathematics, computer science, and artificial intelligence among the general public.

Inspired by the LogicLounge initiators, Helmut Veith (TU Wien) and Oliver Lehmann (Klub der Bildungs- und WissenschaftsjournalistInnen Österreichs), the LogicLounge is traveling the world as a regular event at the Conference on Computer Aided Verification in honour of the late Prof. Helmut Veith (TU Wien).

The LogicLounge with Toby Walsh in Vienna.*

Between the LogicLounges in Oxford (July 2018) and New York (July 2019), Prof. Thomas Eiter and Prof. Stefan Szeider have brought Prof. Toby Walsh to the LogicLounge in Vienna.

Past LogicLounge discussions

Crowd Notice & No Photo/Video zone

The VCLA activities are funded through public means. Video footage and/or photos will be taken during VCLA activities, which may or may not include your recognizable image. VCLA will provide a No Photo/Video zone for the ones who do not wish to have their recognizable photo taken.

Press

September 24, 2018
Radio interview for Ö1 DigitalLeben (English and German)
Achtung, Sie sprechen mit einem Bot!
(Attention, you are talking to a bot!)

September 23, 2018
Interview for Der Standard (German)
KI-Pionier: “Maschinen könnten uns in allen Fähigkeiten übertreffen”
(AI-Pioneer: “Machines´ capabilities could surpass Humans”)

September 22, 2018
Newspaper Interview for Der Standard (German)
„Künstliche Intelligenz könnte eine zweite Renaissance bringen“
(Artificial Intelligence could be the motor of the second renaissance)

September 21, 2018
APA.Science (German)
KI-Experte Toby Walsh: “Terminator ist noch 100 Jahre entfernt”
(AI-Expert Toby Walsh: No Terminator for at least the next 100 years)

DerStandard.at (German)
KI-Experte Toby Walsh: “Terminator ist noch 100 Jahre entfernt“
(AI-Expert Toby Walsh: No Terminator for at least the next 100 years)

Photo Credit *

Nadja Meister