Prof. dr. ir. Erik Mannens of imec-Uantwerp-IDLab
Director of the IDLab, Imec Research Group at University of Antwerp
Title: “The impact of AI on Society and our Planet – a multi-perspective View”
Abstract:
Within a few decades, we will all look back on the current era of AI with compassion. Current AI systems can do a lot, but are being used too quickly without sufficient consideration of possible negative consequences both for the individual and for society. Unfortunately, our current AI systems are not yet robust, not controllable, not predictable, not transparent ánd not responsible enough! The talk elaborates on this, already offering partial solutions, but above all making it clear that research in the coming decade should mainly focus on: AI systems that learn quickly from little data (like us humans), AI systems that use little energy (like us humans), AI systems that can very easily incorporate external contextual information in their decisions (like us humans), and AI systems that can easily connect and reason on different types of heterogeneous data (you guessed it … like us humans :). Apart from that, of course, those systems must then also meet the highest security requirements, i.e., be robust, auditable, predictable, transparent, fair, and accountable! Only then AI systems will be trust worthy and mutual Human-AI interaction will make both humans and AI better. Yes, by then and for sure we’ll have given the Physics Nobel Prize to a collaboration of humans and AI systems. Needless to say that all above also and particularly holds true for future E2E communication systems, which will act as a “central exemplary thread” throughout the presentation.
Bio:
Erik Mannens is Director @ imec UAntwerp IDLab & Professor @ UAntwerp (Sustainable AI) and @ Ghent University (Semantic Intelligence). He received his PhD degree in Computer Science Engineering (2011) at UGent, his Master’s degree in Computer Science (1995) at K.U. Leuven University & his Master’s degree in Electro-Mechanical Engineering (1992) at KAHO Ghent.
Being 50+, from now on he tends to only take on new projects that will have a positive & lasting impact on Society and “Spaceship Earth” as a whole! #SustainableDevelopmentGoals … As such, he took on the Operational Lead of SOLID Lab Flanders for half a year in 2022 and now he is heading imec – UAntwerp – IDLab where we’re working towards Sustainable AI. He thus heads a Data Science team of +125 Wireless Communication & AI Experts that research all aspects of the Sustainability of AI.
Prior to that, he headed a Data Science team of +50 Semantic Technologies & Artificial Intelligence Researchers @ Ghent University for over a decade . Generically, he is also committed to the Open Source, Open Access & Open Knowledge movements. In Flanders he also is part of the Smart City “City of Things” & Open Knowledge Foundation initiative!
Before joining imec-IDLab in 2005 as project manager, he was a software engineering consultant & Java architect for over a decade. Since 2008 Erik is paving the (Linked) Open Data path in Flanders. He stood at the cradle of the first Hackatons & is a founding member of the Open Knowledge Foundation (Belgian Chapter). Since then, he is frequently invited as Linked Open Data evangelist, Smart City expert, and Ethical AI specialist at national and international events. He currently actively participates in several W3C’s standardisation groups. Furthermore his team is owner of the Open Sourced Linked Open Data Publishing frameworks TheDataTank, R&Wbase, RML, Linked Data Fragments, SOLID & CommunicaSpecialties: Sustainable AI, Ethical AI, Semantic Web, (Linked) Open Data, Big Data Analytics, W3C standardization, Java architect, iDTv, web development (from its inception ;)).
