Invitation to the USC AI Futures symposium January 12 and 13

(forwarding an announcement that may be of interest for many in this list)
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We would like to invite all of you and your students to a special research symposium focused on the future of AI interaction and collaboration. The symposium has the theme of “Will AIs Ever Be One of Us?,” and will be held virtually on January 12-13, 2021 from 8:30am PST to 2:30pm PST on both days.

The event will highlight forward-looking research on how to design AI systems to fit the very idiosyncratic nature of our human ecosystems: our expectations, conventions, social norms, ways of talking, individual perspectives, and all dimensions of human communication. 

The agenda is included below.  In addition to thematic presentations from USC researchers, we will have as keynote speakers Elizabeth Churchill (Google), Antonio Damasio (USC), and Prem Natarajan (Amazon), as well as two panels by Kristina Lerman (USC) with Oren Etzioni (AI2), Patrick Lin (Cal Poly), and Cynthia Rudin (Duke U) and by Shri Natarayan (USC) with Wil Corvey (DARPA), Ibrahim Demir (University of Iowa), and Marta Gonzalez (UC Berkeley).  

You can find more details and register to attend at:

https://www.isi.edu/events/ai_symposium_2021 <https://www.isi.edu/events/ai_symposium_2021>

We hope to see you there!


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AI FUTURES SYMPOSIUM

“Will AIs Ever Be One of Us?”

AGENDA 

TUESDAY Jan 12, 2021

8:45am-9am PST  — Welcome and opening remarks
Yannis Yortsos, Dean, USC Viterbi School of Engineering
Cyrus Shahabi, Chair, USC Department of Computer Science
Craig Knoblock, Executive Director, USC Information Sciences Institute

9am-10am PST  — Session I: Harnessing Information
Session Chair: Ralph Weischedel
Speakers:
   Emilio Ferrara, “Controlling Misinformation”
   Craig Knoblock, “Threading Data” 
   Wael Abd-Almageed, “Seeing is not Believing”
   Ram Nevatia, “Multi-Source Synthesis”
   Liz Boschee, “Provenance Matters”

10am-10:15am PST  — **Break**

10:15am-11am PST  — Invited talk I: Prem Natarajan, Amazon
"Deep Understanding”

11am-11:15am PST  — **Break**

11:15am-12pm PST  — Invited talk II: Antonio Damasio, USC
"Intelligences, Brains, and Humanity"

12pm-12:15pm PST  — **Break**

12:15pm-1:15pm PST  — Session II: Acting Responsibly and Ethically 
Session Chair: Sven Koenig
Speakers:
   Kristina Lerman, “Fair Behaviors”
   Fred Morstatter, “Cultural Differences”
   Shri Narayanan, “Inclusive Design”
   Keith Burghardt, “Bias and Opinions”
   Bistra Dilkina, “Making Good Decisions”

1:15pm-1:30pm PST  —  **Break**

1:30pm-2:15pm PST  —  Panel I: AI agency: legality, responsibility, ethics 
Panel Chair: Kristina Lerman
Panelists: 
   Oren Etzioni (AI2) 
   Patrick Lin (Cal Poly San Luis Obispo)  
   Cynthia Rudin (Duke University) 

WEDNESDAY Jan 13, 2021

8:45am-9am PST  — Welcome

9am-10am PST  — Session III: Learning Independently
Session Chair: Yan Liu
Speakers:
   Pedro Szekely, “All the World’s Knowledge”
   Greg Ver Steeg, “Thinking about How to Learn”
   Aram Galstyan, “The Science of Forecasting”
   Xiang Ren, “Learning from Human Explanation”
   Jose Luis Ambite, “Compartmentalizing Data”

10am-10:15am PST  — **Break**

10:15am-11am PST  — Poster session

11am-11:15am PST  —  **Break**

11:15am-12pm PST  — Invited talk III: Elizabeth Churchill, Google
“Inclusive Design”

12pm-12:15pm PST  — **Break**

12:15pm-1:15pm PST  — Session IV: Taking On Critical Tasks
Session Chair: Pedro Szekely
Speakers:
   Jon May, “Responding to Unexpected Events”
   Mayank Kejriwal, “Protecting Children”
   Jay Pujara, “Financial Accountability”
   Yolanda Gil, “AI Scientists”
   Marjorie Freeman, “Trust and Security”

1:15pm -1:30pm PST  — **Break**

1:30pm-2:15pm PST  — Panel II: Human-AI Collaboration for Navigating Crises
Panel Chair: Shri Narayanan
Panelists: 
   Wil Corvey (DARPA)
   Ibrahim Demir (University of Iowa)
   Marta Gonzalez (UC Berkeley) 

2:15pm-2:30pm PST  — Closing remarks
Maja Mataric, USC Interim Vice President of Research
Craig Knoblock, Executive Director, USC Information Sciences Institute

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