Artificial Intelligence: The Inside Story.Hi, I’m Ashleigh, one of the presenters, who along with my co-presenter Dr Walter Green delivered a seminar that provided insight into the mysteries of AI and its wider implications to engineers and society as a whole.
The goal of this seminar was to bring together students and professionals both young and old, to deliver some real understanding on a topic that is often daunting to behold. We also wanted to bring these students and professionals together for an evening of networking, giving them the opportunity to talk to others with similar interests. You didn’t have to be involved with the IET to come down - everyone was welcome. We wanted to create an event that would engage the engineering community, and give real value to the senior members, students, and young professionals who attended.
The wonderful Peta Blight spearheaded the organisation of this event, and it couldn’t have achieved such success without her. All up, we were joined by 50 guests, from students to young professionals to young-at-heart engineering and science professionals in the picturesque WA State Library.
During the presentation, we discussed the history and origins of Artificial Intelligence, and the different families of AI algorithms. We went into a detailed explanation of how Neural Networks really work, starting from the basics of linear equations. We discussed the limitations of AI, and the ethics that must be considered in order to build safe, holistic systems around artificially intelligent software. Throughout the presentation, we included anecdotes about what can go wrong when an AI system is implemented without due consideration, from Google’s automated resume classification having a bias against women, to the deadly mistakes made by Uber and Tesla’s self-driving cars.
I have attached the presentation in the Files Section on WA's Engineering Community page and below this post if you would like to check it out.
Thank you to all those who attended and provided feedback on the night.
We are looking forward to seeing you at the next one!
Ashleigh Ballantyne
Data Scientist, IET WA Committee Member