Strand
London
UK
We live in an age of superabundant information and the power of computers increases exponentially.
The power of computers has led to systems such as Watson and companies such as Deep Mind which raise questions about the emergence of artificial intelligence. What is the reality and what do we know about making smart software?
In the meantime the Internet and World Wide Web have transformed our lives. However, our understanding of these systems when used by millions globally is still in its infancy. What are the insights that studying these Social Machines provide to help us understand the evolving Web of the 21st Century?
Open data published on the Web is improving the efficiency of our public services and giving rise to open innovation. Data collected at scale by public and private agencies also gives rise to concerns about its use and abuse. This data deluge also presents challenges.
This lecture will discuss these fast moving developments and how they complement each other.
Biography:
Sir Nigel Shadbolt is Professor of Computer Science at the University of Oxford and Principal of Jesus College. He is also the Chairman and Co-Founder of the Open Data Institute (ODI). Since 2009, Sir Nigel has acted as an Information Adviser to the UK Government, helping transform public access to Government information, including the widely acclaimed data.gov.uk site.
With over 500 publications he researches and publishes on computer science, artificial intelligence, open data and web science. During his career, he has also worked in philosophy, psychology and linguistics. Since 2000 he has secured 17 projects as Principal Investigator with a value of over £20 million pounds. He is currently Principal Investigator on a £6.14M EPSRC funded Programme Grant researching the theory of social machines – Web scale problem solving systems comprising large numbers of humans and computers.
In 2006 he was one of three founding Directors of Garlik Ltd, which in 2008 was awarded Technology Pioneer status by the Davos World Economic Forum and won the prestigious UK national BT Flagship Award. Garlik was acquired by Experian Ltd in 2011. In 2013 he was awarded a Knighthood for services to science and engineering.