Hybrid: AI and ChatGPT with Rick Lawrence

ChatGPT debuted in November 2022, and has captured the imagination of the world.  It has accelerated a broad discussion of the role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in all aspects of our daily lives. In this general audience talk, we will begin with an overview of ChatGPT and discuss how it differs from traditional search engines. ChatGPT is an example of the emerging field of Generative AI, and we will briefly describe the related image generation application DALL-E.  We will provide specific examples of ChatGPT illustrating its remarkable capabilities, and discuss some of its well-documented shortcomings including bias, misinformation, and hallucination.  Finally, we will touch on several societal issues in AI including ethical considerations, government regulation, and the impact of AI on education and future career opportunities.

Bio

Rick Lawrence received his B.S. from Stanford University in Chemical Engineering and his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois in Nuclear Engineering.  His career has evolved from nuclear science to machine learning to quantitative finance, and most recently, to COVID data science.   He worked in the nuclear science department at Schlumberger-Doll research facility in Ridgefield from 1984 to 1987.  He joined IBM Research in Yorktown Heights, NY in 1987, where he held a number of management positions, most recently as Distinguished Research Staff Member and Senior Manager, Machine Learning & Decision Analytics.  From 2016 to 2019, he was President of PCIX, Inc, a New York City VC-funded startup that used machine learning to extract quantitative insight on the relationship between private-equity transactions and the performance of public markets.  Since 2020, Rick has volunteered his time to the Ridgefield COVID-19 Task Force, and has discussed COVID data science and its implications for public policy on numerous local Cable TV shows and other public forums.  Rick and his wife Margaret Sullivan have lived in Ridgefield since 1996.

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