Friday 4 Aug 2017, 6.00pm, Presbyterian Church Hall, 91 Tenby St, Wanaka.
Assoc. Prof. Alistair Knott, Department of Computer Science, University of Otago.
Alistair Knott is an Associate Professor in the Computer Science department at the University of Otago. He studied Psychology and Philosophy at Oxford University, then took a MSc and PhD in Artificial Intelligence at the University of Edinburgh. He is an expert on human language modelling, and has published over 90 papers in this area. His book ‘Sensorimotor Cognition and Natural Language Syntax’ (MIT Press, 2012) was called ‘a ground-breaking and foundation-building look at the underpinnings of human language syntax’ that ‘opens up untraveled avenues for interdisciplinary research’ (Viviane Deprez, Rutgers University). He has given many talks on his research, including talks at TEDx Auckland (2012) and TEDx Athens (2013). He has been interested in the ethical and social implications of AI throughout his career, and in January 2016 co-founded the AI and Society discussion group at Otago. He is currently coordinating a project funded by the New Zealand Law Foundation on ‘AI and Law in New Zealand’, together with Colin Gavaghan (Law, Otago) and James Maclaurin (Philosophy, Otago).
